Vietjet

Is Vietjet safe?

Yes. Vietjet has flown since December 2011 without a fatal accident or the loss of an aircraft, and it now has a bigger fleet than any other Vietnamese airline. It is an IATA member, which requires the 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 safety audit. We score it 79. What keeps the score below the best low-cost airlines is a record of landing errors, serious enough in 2018 for Vietnam's regulator to step in.

Vietjet or Thai Vietjet?

Two airlines carry the Vietjet name on this page:

Airline	Code	Certificate	Fleet (August 2026)
Vietjet (VietJet Aviation JSC)	VJ	Vietnam, CAAV	107: A320, A321ceo/neo, 8 A330-300
Thai Vietjet	VZ	Thailand, CAAT	23: A320, A321, 11 Boeing 737-8

Thai Vietjet is a Thai airline in which Vietjet holds a stake, with its own crews, maintenance approvals and regulator. It got a new certificate from Thailand's CAAT when Thailand re-certified its airlines after ICAO's 2015 safety concern. Vietjet Qazaqstan, a third affiliate in Kazakhstan, is not covered here.

The 2018 warning

Late 2018 was Vietjet's worst period, and the regulator's response is the clearest guide to its weak point.

• Buon Ma Thuot, 29 November 2018. VJ356, an Airbus A321neo from Ho Chi Minh City with 207 people on board, touched down so that both nose wheels broke off; it stopped on the runway. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) found no technical fault and said the pilots had disconnected the autopilot too early and could have gone around but did not.
• Cam Ranh, 25 December 2018. VJ689 turned back soon after take-off with a landing gear hydraulic warning. While the crew dealt with it, the captain lost focus and landed on a parallel runway that was still under construction, ignoring the tower's clearance for the open one.

Two days later the CAAV blamed both events on pilot error. It placed Vietjet's operations at Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang and Cam Ranh under special supervision for a month, suspended the head of operations and halted any increase in flights. The transport minister signed a directive saying the airline had "let several incidents threaten flight safety".

Since then

The supervision ended, but landings remain the pattern in the record that AeroInside compiles from investigation and news reports:

• 14 June 2020: an A321 from Phu Quoc ran off the runway on landing at Ho Chi Minh City.
• 16 October 2020: an A321 landed at Dong Hoi with a vertical load of 4.27 g, hard enough to count as an accident.
• 19 October 2024: a ground proximity warning sounded during a go-around at Pleiku.
• 7 May 2025: an A320 from Hanoi briefly left the runway landing at Ho Chi Minh City.

In April 2018, an A321 climbing out of Da Nang had stalls and overheating in both engines and shut one down. No one has been killed or seriously hurt in any of these events, but the run of landing events is why incidents score 64.

How old are Vietjet's planes?

Young. Of the 107 Vietjet aircraft counted by ch-aviation in August 2026, 47 are A321neos; the rest are A320ceos and A321ceos and eight A330-300s for longer routes. Vietjet also has a commitment to lease ten Chinese-built COMAC C909 regional jets, a type from the ARJ21 family with little service history outside China. Thai Vietjet's 11 Boeing 737-8s are new.

The A321neo fleet has a practical problem: Pratt & Whitney's engine recall. In July 2026, 17 A321neos across Vietnamese airlines were still grounded waiting for engines. That affects schedules more than safety, since the inspections are what keep suspect engines off the wing.

How to fly Vietjet safely

• Check the code. VJ is the Vietnamese airline, VZ the Thai one; the regulator and crews differ.
• Stay belted until the gate. Most of Vietjet's events happened on landing, and a runway excursionRunway excursionWhen an aircraft leaves the runway surface during take-off or landing, either off the end (an overrun) or off the side (a veer-off).More in the glossary is far less dangerous for passengers who are still strapped in.
• In the typhoon season, about August to November in central Vietnam, expect delays and keep your seat belt fastened when seated.

How we scored it

The accident record (88) is good for a 15-year-old airline with no deaths and no lost aircraft. Incidents (64) is the weak factor, for the 2018 errors and the landing events since. Compare Vietnam Airlines at 81 and the AirAsia group at 68.