Hanoi (VNA) – The national flagcarrier Vietnam Airlines on July 2 said it will implement the Branded FaresMatrix (BFM) as part of its efforts to catch up with the modern global airlinesector.

The BFM is the bundling of rights andinterests of customers such as ticket return and change, service upgrade,flight change, assigned seats and priority check-in and screening, amongothers.

The bundling services will make it easierfor customers to book tickets most suitable for their needs and budget.

Under the model, there will be BusinessClass, Premium Economy Class and Economy Class, with Flex, Classic and Lite fares. 

Besides, passengers of Flex and Classicfares of the Business Class will earn from 150 percent to 200 percent of themiles they fly as award miles.

Passengers of Flex fares of the BusinessClass and the Economy Class will receive priority check-in, and those of allFlex fares of international flights can return and change tickets.

A representative of Vietnam Airlines said fromJuly 5, the carrier will levy additional administration charges on Classic andLite fares of the Economy Class, while removing additional charges of onlinebooking services.

Additional administration charges are partof the carrier’s efforts to improve the quality of its passengeradministration.

An administration fee of 80,000 VND perflight will be applied to domestic routes of less than 850km, and 150,000 VNDto domestic routes of more than 850km. For international routes, the fee is 7USD per flight.

Business, Premium Economy and Flex Economytickets will be exempt from administration fees.

Vietnam Airlines aims to serve more than 24.3 million passengersand earn consolidated net profit of more than 97 trillion VND (4.27 billionUSD) in 2018. 
The airline also targets pre-tax profit of more than 2.4 trillionVND (105.4 million USD) this year, while that of the parent company will be at1.95 trillion VND (85.6 million USD).
In 2017,Vietnam Airlines conducted 140,000 flights carrying 22 million passengers. Thecorporation earned a record pre-tax profit of more than 3.15 trillion VND(135.1 million USD), surpassing the yearly target by 92.6 percent and posting ayear-on-year increase of 21.3 percent.
 
The parent company raked in more than 64.9trillion VND in revenue and 1.9 trillion VND in pre-tax profit, exceeding thetarget by 52 percent and registering a year-on-year rise of 11.7 percent.

Vietnam Airlines maintained its four-star ratingby Skytrax for two consecutive years.
 
In 2017,Vietnam Airlines continued receiving national and international recognitionwith a number of prestigious awards, most notably being listed on the 10strongest brands of Brand Finance.-VNA