bikini airline vietjet, vietjet services, vietjet stewardesses, vietjet bikini dance, vietjet ipo, vietjet ceo CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao
An airplane of Vietjet Air is seen before a flight at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi, Vietnam, December 15, 2016.Reuters file

VietJet, the six-year-old carrier of Vietnam, that went public this February, has a lot more to it than the occasional bikini stunts it's known for. The first private carrier of the Southeast country plans, which currently has a 42 percent share of the domestic aviation market, plans to increase it to 50 percent by December this year.

At its annual general meeting a few days ago in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, the low-cost carrier set for itself an ambitious target of 53 percent increase in revenues and 36 percent in profit for the current year.

In 2016, VietJet logged 27.4 trillion dong (around $1.17 billion) in revenues and 2.4 trillion dong in profit, the Nikkei Asian Review reported, adding that the growth plans would mean 42 trillion dong ($1.8 billion) in revenues and 3.3 trillion dong in net profit.

To drive growth, the company's shareholders approved a proposal to hike the foreign ownership limit in the carrier from the current 30 percent to 49 percent, post which it will make a formal request to regulators.

State-owned carrier Vietnam Airlines has about 50 percent share in the domestic market with the rest being held by its subsidies, the Bloomberg reported two weeks ago.

Four months ago, the company's 167 million initial public offering (IPO) that valued it about $1 billion, saw a spectacular listing on February 28, gaining 20 percent on debut on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.

Launching its commercial services in December 2011, VietJet has a 45 aircraft strong fleet and flies to destinations within as well as 30 regional destinations in Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, Japan, Hong Kong and Myanmar.

The carrier managed to catch the attention of passengers and the general public when its stewardesses appeared in little more than bikinis as uniform.

"They've been clever about their marketing.This gave them huge publicity all over the world," aviation analyst Greg Waldron of FlightGlobal told the BBC in February.

However, they had to pay a price in August 2012 for their bikini act. The airline hired beauty contestants in bikini-tops for a Hawaiian-themed dance on its maiden flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang, the BBC reported that year, citing newspaper reports.

VietJet said it merely wanted to offer a "holiday atmosphere for tourists who were on way to Nha Trang, a popular Vietnamese holiday destination."

The tactic backfired when the airline was penalised.

Last week, VietJet resorted to a less-risky way — flash mob dance — to welcome its passengers on board on the maiden Hanoi-Singapore flight.

VietJet's founder and CEO is Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. The 46-year-old executive is also Southeast Asia's only woman billionaire, according to Forbes. 

bikini airline vietjet, vietjet services, vietjet stewardesses, vietjet bikini dance, vietjet ipo, vietjet ceo CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao
VietJet Air CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao speaks behind a model of a VietJet aircraft during an interview in her office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, January 10, 2017.Reuters file