Travel news forum

eTravel Blackboard reports that Vietnam's government will stop licensing new airlines until 2015, according to local media reports. Thanh Nien News said the move is due to the country’s limited airport facilities and availability of skilled workers.

Lai Xuan Thanh, deputy general director of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, told reporters that the five existing state-owned airlines were competing against each other for skilled workers. He added that Vietnam has no aviation school and that most pilots working in the country were foreigners.

In 2015, the airports in Tan Son Nhat and Noi Bai will only be able to facilitate 92 planes – a worrying number considering the combined fleets of the five carriers are expected to reach 149 aircraft by that time.

This sounds like a wise move, and kind of like the airline industry globally at the moment, though particularly in Asia. What's the solution? More training? More infrastructure spending?