Due to delays in salary payments, more over 10% of Bamboo Airlines' (QH, Hanoi) pilots have quit in recent months. According to Reuters, who cited unnamed officials with knowledge of the situation, the airline had a history of paying the salaries of international pilots late despite the fact that they account for a sizable portion of the carrier's overall workforce.
In the past two months, it is said that 30 pilots have quit over the problem when Bamboo's management informed them via an internal business message system that their salary will be reimbursed afterward. On August 21, it informed them that they would receive 35% of their mid-August salary that day, with the other portion to be paid at a later, unannounced time.
Each month, Bamboo Airlines pays its pilots. The salary amounts that were due in August for work done in July were eventually paid, but according to Reuters' sources, the pilots had received a similar notice and encountered a similar delay in July for the work done in June. Salary payments for work done in August were also not made on time, on September 15, and were still unpaid as of September 25.
The airline did not respond to a request for comment.
Bamboo Airlines flies to 31 locations across 11 nations, according to statistics from ch-aviation PRO airlines. It has 30 aircraft in service, including three B787-9s, six A320-200s, six A320-200Ns, four A321-200s, four A321-200NX, six A320-200s, and six A320-200Ns. Moreover, it has ten additional B787-9s and one A321-200 on order. The airline has changed majority ownership and the composition of its board of directors amid continued losses, but it has refuted rumours that it is going bankrupt.
The airline has experienced challenges, but Bamboo CEO Nguyen Ngoc Trong recently insisted that management, the board, shareholders, and the government are dedicated to bringing the airline back into sound financial condition. One of the board members of a significant lender, Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank), was recently nominated to the Bamboo Airways board. The airline owes Sacombank VND3 trillion dong (USD123.6 million), however the bank has stated that its loans are secured and that repayments have been completed on schedule. Additionally, it has openly declared its support for Bamboo and hinted at the prospect of investing in it.
-By Nguyen Chau|thetransporteronline24|Vietnam
