CAAV warns Jetstar about its logo

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) has again told low cost carrier Jetstar Pacific to remove the Australian Jetstar Airways’ logo from its planes in Vietnam to meet conditions to receive a new license.

In a document sent to Jetstar Pacific earlier this week, CAAV ordered the airline to remove the old logo by June 30 this year. The local aviation watchdog wants airport authorities to strictly observe the logo’s removal.

If Jetstar Pacific fails to comply, CAAV will take serious measures to force the carrier to obey the order given by minister of Transport Ho Nghia Dung at a meeting in November last year.

At the meeting in Hanoi, the minister told leaders from Jetstar Pacific and its biggest shareholder, State Capital Investment Corp (SCIC), to create a new logo for its commercial activities to differentiate between Jetstar Airways.

Vo Huy Cuong, director of CAAV’s Air Transport Department, said that Jetstar Pacific had requested more time to discuss the new branding with its foreign shareholder Qantas Group and its Australian partner Jetstar Airways.

Qantas now holds a minority 27 percent stake in Jetstar Pacific and was given the option to increase ownership to 30 percent worth $50 million when it signed an agreement with SCIC in Hanoi in April 2007.

Jetstar Pacific began using the logo for its domestic business in May 2008 when the carrier was transformed from Pacific Airlines under a strategic and commercial partnership with Qantas’s airline Jetstar,

Jetstar Pacific has invested heavily to promote the Jetstar brand in Vietnam to gain a bigger market share and a firm stance on the home front before flying to other international destinations in Asia.

However, CAAV warned Jetstar Pacific that the practice must stop immediately.

However, both Jetstar Pacific and Jetstar Airways claim that the cross-border use of the branding was standard international practice, and one that already had precedence in the aviation industry in the Asia Pacific region.

Cuong of CAAV told the Daily on the phone yesterday that Jetstar Pacific would be given more time to remove the logo from its offices and on its aircraft to support its business.

Cuong said that as repainting the aircraft would be expensive, the airline could temporarily fly with the Jetstar logo.

However, he stressed that the carrier would have to submit a plan outlining logo and brand development as one of the transport ministry’s conditions to grant them a permanent license.

He explained that Jetstar Pacific received a license effective from its transformation in2008, but it would expire in mid-October this year.

The issue linked to the Jetstar brand was one of the reasons the airline only received a two-year license.

He noted that VietJet Air would not be allowed to fly if it counted on AirAsia’s logo and was unable to build its own brand.

The private airline is expected to take off in August this year, after AirAsia acquired a 30 percent stake of the local airline.

Cuong said that the branding issues were not the main reason why Jetstar Pacific had not been granted traffic rights to operate international flights, as reported by some local newspapers.

The airline received a license to fly to Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia in 2008, but it was nullified, as the carrier was not able to conduct international services within 12 months.

TBKTSG

Tags: Australian Jetstar Airways, Jetstar Pacific, Vietnam aviation, Vietnam aviation market