Social Affairs
CEO of Vietjet Air joins the Forbes list of 100 most powerful women
She is also in the Forbes list of 19 most powerful women in business 2017.
Forbes magazine has just released its annual list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2017, in which, the Chairwoman of Sovico Holdings and CEO of Vietjet Air – Mrs. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao is at the 55th and is the only representative of Vietnam.
The Vietnam's first self-made woman billionaire took her budget airline, VietJet Air, public in February 2017. She launched the airline in 2011 and made a big splash early on with ads featuring bikini-clad flight attendants. The airline, which offers 300 flights a day, operates more than 40% of the nation's flights. She also has investments in HD Bank and real estate including three beach resorts. With net worth is estimated at 1.93 billion USD, Mrs. Thao is ranked at 1,678th in the billionaire list of Forbes, and the second USD billionaire of Vietnam, after Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong of Vingroup.
In 2016, The airline announced the launch a Thailand subsidiary, Thai VietJet Air. The new airline assumes the parent company’s existing routes between Bangkok and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, before expanding to Danang. The airline is riding the wave of a booming market in Vietnam, with rising income levels domestically putting air travel within reach of many more people and steadily increasing tourist numbers. Indeed, Vietnam was Asia’s fastest growing domestic market in 2015, according to the CAPA Centre for Aviation. The Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City route is now the seventh largest route in the world and recorded the most growth among the top 10 globally.
According to the airline, VietJet carried 9.3 million passengers in 2015, up 66 percent from the previous year. At the same time, revenue jumped by more than 200 percent to $488 million. The airline expects passenger numbers to reach 15 million this year and revenue to double. It is poised to overtake national carrier Vietnam Airlines any day now in the domestic market.
Mrs. Thao once stated her model for VietJet was the Dubai-based airline Emirates, a global airline based in a country with a small population, and her ambition was to make VietJet the Emirates of Asia. Given the rate of growth the company has experienced in its first five years of operation, and the healthy outlook for low-cost carriers in Southeast Asia, in general this goal does not seem so farfetched.
At the top of the list the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2017 of Forbes is the Prime Minister of Germany Angela Merkel. While in the list of Most powerful women in Business is the CEO of General Motors (US) Mary Barra. Since 2004, Forbes has compiled a list of the 100 most powerful women in the world. It is edited by notable Forbes journalists, including Moira Forbes, and is based on visibility and economic impact. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has remained at the top spot since 2006, with the brief exception of 2010 where she was temporarily supplanted by former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama.
In 2016, The airline announced the launch a Thailand subsidiary, Thai VietJet Air. The new airline assumes the parent company’s existing routes between Bangkok and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, before expanding to Danang. The airline is riding the wave of a booming market in Vietnam, with rising income levels domestically putting air travel within reach of many more people and steadily increasing tourist numbers. Indeed, Vietnam was Asia’s fastest growing domestic market in 2015, according to the CAPA Centre for Aviation. The Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City route is now the seventh largest route in the world and recorded the most growth among the top 10 globally.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao is at the 55th and is the only representative of Vietnam.
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Mrs. Thao once stated her model for VietJet was the Dubai-based airline Emirates, a global airline based in a country with a small population, and her ambition was to make VietJet the Emirates of Asia. Given the rate of growth the company has experienced in its first five years of operation, and the healthy outlook for low-cost carriers in Southeast Asia, in general this goal does not seem so farfetched.
At the top of the list the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2017 of Forbes is the Prime Minister of Germany Angela Merkel. While in the list of Most powerful women in Business is the CEO of General Motors (US) Mary Barra. Since 2004, Forbes has compiled a list of the 100 most powerful women in the world. It is edited by notable Forbes journalists, including Moira Forbes, and is based on visibility and economic impact. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has remained at the top spot since 2006, with the brief exception of 2010 where she was temporarily supplanted by former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama.
