Photos of torn passenger seats and bookshelves in a Jetstar Pacific’ plane.

As reflected by Hoang Thien Nga, head of Chief Representative of Tien Phong Newspaper Office in the Central Highlands, images were recorded on Phu Quoc-Ho Chi Minh City flights on May 25, you can see many seats on the plane that are torn with a piece of skin that covers the mattress in it. Bookshelves from several seats were also torn.

Nga also said CEO of Jetstar Pacific, Nguyen Quoc Phuong, had made an apology over the phone and sent his apology to the other passengers on that plane.

However, until May 29, there has been no official apology from Jetstar airline for a large number of passengers after the "torn seats" incident. In the media, Jetstar has not reported anything about the continued use of aircraft with old and torn furniture as in the above flight and if still in use, the company will inform customers in advance.

Jetstar Pacific representative said, "The aircraft have a repair plan. However, repairs and replacements must follow the standard. We have a plan but ordering, making and importing for replacement takes time.”

However, the readers' reactions to this issue are quite severe. Vietnam Time’s readers Nguyen Manh said: 'It is too unkempt to leave the passenger seat like this… '

Other reader Hoang Nam evaluated: 'They spent VND 2 million for a ticket yet have to board a plane like this?'

Reader Nguyen Huu Cuong added: ' The explanation of the Jetstar CEO is not satisfactory…Where is the equipment maintenance team? Poor management or for what reason Jetstar?'.

Notably, many readers reacted quite harshly when hearing the information that Jetstar Pacific representatives had the intention of blaming passengers, especially children for the "torn seats" incident. According to reader Hoang Anh Tung: 'Seeing a representative of the company answering in many official newspapers that bookshelves was used as footrest by customers and and ripped seats caused by mischievous children. It's sad for this kind of explanation to blame customers and children of Jetstar - which seems to be managed by Vietnam Airlines, too? '

Some people think that Jetstar service quality is too bad, even though the cost is not cheap.

According to a female passeger Nga, although being a low-cost airline, the cost of her family's short flight is not cheap. On average, more than VND 2 million for each seats on this short distance flight. The images and reflections of the above customers continue to raise many questions about the quality of this budget carrier?

In addition, the most popular question now is that with a loss of more than VND 4,000 billion, does Jetstar Pacific have the budget to invest in the quality of services as well as rent new aircraft?

Jetstar’s big profit, who is responsible for more than VND 4,000 billion loss?

Recently, at the Government press conference in the afternoon of May 4, the press asked questions about personal responsibility for losses of more than 4,000 billion VND of Jetstar Pacific Airlines (JPA). State-owned Vietnam Airlines Corporation is JPA’s mother company.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat said since Vietnam Airlines took over Jetstar Pacific, the carrier accumulated losses of more than 3,000 billion VND. According to the production and business plan that Vietnam Airlines has built for Jetstar Pacific, by 2020, it will reduce losses and eventually suffer no losses. Regarding personal responsibility for this loss, Deputy Minister Nguyen Nhat said he would request Vietnam Airlines to report more specifically.

Although Jetstar Pacific still has losses and cannot balance its financial position, there are positive signs.

According to the 2018 financial report, Jetstar Pacific recorded total revenue of VND 9,310 billion, profit before tax reached VND 34.3 billion. Although this is a low interest rate, it is an important milestone of Jetstar Pacific, a state-owned airline holding 68.8% of its charter capital, having undergone 2 restructuring attempts.

By the end of 2018, Jetstar Pacific's scale has been significantly increased with a fleet of 15 Airbus A320 aircrafts. The airline's route network consists of 22 destinations, including 16 domestic destinations and 6 international destinations including Bangkok (Thailand), Singapore, Hongkong, Taipei (China), Guangzhou (China), Kansai (Japan).

Jetstar Pacific's scale in the domestic market currently accounts for about 18%, contributing to the number of over 52% of Vietnam Airlines Group./.

VNF