Qantas to lift stake in Jetstar Pacific to 30 percent

Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd. plans to increase its stake in budget airline Jetstar Pacific from 27 to 30 percent next year, a local newswire VietNamNet reported this week.
The group, which held 18 percent of the airline a year ago, raised its holding in Jetstar Pacific to 27 percent in August this year, according to Thoi Bao Kinh Te Sai Gon Online (Saigon Economic Times Online).
Qantas became a strategic partner of the government’s State Capital Investment Corporation in April 2007 after a US$50 million deal for a 30 percent stake in Vietnam’s second largest airline.
The airline enjoys an average seat occupancy of 85 percent. It carried one million passengers in the first half of this year, up 30 percent from the same period in 2008.
Jetstar Pacific operates 42 domestic flights per day on seven major routes, including HCMC-Hanoi, and from these two cities to Danang, Vinh, Hue, Haiphong and Nha Trang and vice versa.