Ministry seeks to pave ways for new airlines The Ministry of Transport has completed a draft plan to expand the aviation sector for the 2018-2020 period, with view to 2030.    Vietnam's flagship carrier Vietnam Airlines They are gathering opinions from related agencies before submitting the draft to the prime minister. According to the ministry, the annual aviation market growth rate will be 16% from now to 2020 and 8% from 2020 to 2030. Local airlines are expected to serve 64 million passengers by 2020 and 131 million passengers by 2030. The Ministry of Transport wants to expand the airlines' fleet to 220 planes by 2020 and 400 planes by 2030. Vietnam currently has seven aviation companies but only four are commercial airlines with 180 planes. The rate of customers travelling by air in Vietnam’s total population increased from 0.5% in 2012 to 0.8% in the first half of 2016. This shows that more people are using airlines. Leaders of local airlines assessed that Vietnam needs about 10 airlines to meet demand and make it a healthy competitive market. However, aviation investments have many difficulties in both planning and administrative procedures. It takes from three to four years to establish a new aviation company. The aviation plan must be compatible with the state's master planning and it must be reviewed by the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Planning and Investment at the same time. That's why many companies such as Vietstar Airlines still haven't started commercial flights. The local authorities postponed issuing permits to Vietstar Airlines because of overloading at Tan Son Nhat Airport. Tan Cang and Vietbamboo Airlines still need to submit their documents to the Ministry of Planning and Investment. According to the experts, the aviation sector planning adjustment this year will help boost the investment process. On February 2, Vietnam Air Traffic Management (VATM) Corporation signed a contract with MITRE Corporation to develop the country's Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) Master Plan. The ATFM Master Plan project will provide VATM with an integrated vision and systematic roadmap to implement ATFM in Vietnam. This contract will be jointly funded by the US Trade Development Agency and the VATM. nguoilaodong