Bamboo Airways

Is Bamboo Airways safe?

Bamboo Airways flew under the same Vietnamese rules as Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet, and it has had no fatal accident and no aircraft written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary since it started in 2019. We score it 74. The bigger question for a traveller in late 2026 is whether a flight exists at all: Bamboo has sold no scheduled tickets since 1 August 2026, and the only one of its three remaining aircraft still flying in August, on charters, was due to stop on 22 August.

The score carries low confidence. The airline's record is only seven years long, it flew far fewer flights after 2023, and Vietnam's regulator publishes few incident reports.

What happened to Bamboo Airways?

Bamboo Airways was founded in 2017 by FLC Group, a property developer, and began commercial flights in early 2019. It grew fast, flew Boeing 787-9s on long-haul routes such as Melbourne, and at its peak had 44 aircraft, according to local media cited by Air Data News.

The decline began with its owner:

• 29 March 2022: police arrested Trinh Van Quyet, chairman of FLC Group and of Bamboo Airways, on suspicion of stock market manipulation. The next day the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) met the airline's leaders and said it would supervise maintenance and training more strictly for at least three to six months.
• May 2023: FLC transferred its whole stake to a group led by Le Thai Sam. The airline then shrank, handing back aircraft and dropping its long-haul routes.
• 5 August 2024: the Hanoi People's Court sentenced Quyet to 21 years in prison for defrauding investors when an FLC subsidiary listed its shares. The case was about FLC's finances, not the airline's operations.
• 25 September 2025: FLC took back control of Bamboo. By then it flew seven A320-family jets on 12 domestic routes, with no regular international flights.
• 1 August 2026: Bamboo stopped selling scheduled tickets on its main routes between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. One A321 kept flying charters, such as Da Nang to Macau, until a planned stop on 22 August (Tuoi Tre). The airline has not said whether scheduled flights will return.

None of these events was a safety finding against the airline. The concern they raise is a general one: an airline under years of financial pressure can lose experienced pilots and engineers, and the CAAV's 2022 decision to watch maintenance and training more closely shows the regulator shared it.

The Melbourne take-off

On 18 September 2023, flight QH83, a Boeing 787-9 from Melbourne to Hanoi, departed from runway 34 at night while works had shortened it by 1,568 m. The crew had planned the take-off for the full length, so with reduced thrust the take-off run went past the temporary runway end lights into the 450 m buffer in front of the works. Its jet blast hit lights and marker cones in an area where people were working. No one was hurt and the aircraft was not damaged. A Malaysia Airlines A330 had done the same 11 days earlier.

Australia's ATSB published its final report on 11 November 2025. It found that the Bamboo crew, delayed by repeated power failures on the aircraft and under time pressure, did not check the NOTAMs again after boarding and confirmed the latest airport information to the controller without having listened to it. It also found gaps in how airports and controllers confirm that crews have heard such information.

That flight, and a November 2021 ground collision at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport between a Bamboo jet leaving for Phu Quoc and another being parked, are the main entries in a thin record. Vietnam's regulator publishes little, so we score incidents at 62, below Vietjet at 64, rather than reading the short list as clean.

How good is the oversight?

Vietnam is in FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary, and no Vietnamese airline is on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary. Bamboo Airways still appears on IATA's member list, and IATA's IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary registry confirms that its audit is current: it lists Bamboo as registered until 21 April 2027. Oversight scores 74, four below Vietnam Airlines at 78, for the CAAV's 2022 tightened supervision.

What does Bamboo fly now?

In August 2026 the fleet was down to three jets, an A321ceo, an A320neo and an A320ceo, and only the A321ceo was flying, on charters that were due to end on 22 August (Tuoi Tre, citing Planespotters). The 787-9s and most of the Airbus jets have left. We describe parked aircraft but do not score them; the fleet score of 62 reflects one active jet of an older generation and no published age.

Should you book Bamboo Airways?

• Check that your flight is a charter actually operated by Bamboo. Scheduled tickets have not been sold since 1 August 2026. If a tour operator sells you a Bamboo charter, ask for the aircraft registration and the operator named on the booking.
• Claim refunds in writing and keep the records. The airline says refunds are taking longer than usual.
• For domestic Vietnam, Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet fly the same routes daily and both score higher.

How we scored it

The accident record (84) is clean but short. Fleet (62) and incidents (62) are the weak factors: one active aircraft and the Melbourne take-off in a thin record. We will rescore the page when Bamboo restarts scheduled flights or stops flying.