'Taking Flight Is a Sign of Civilization': Who Is Vietjet's Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo?
Vietjet chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo rarely talks about fares. She talks about civilization. She started out trading on credit in Moscow, and in 2017 said about 30% of Vietjet's passengers were flying for the first time.
['Taking Flight Is a Sign of Civilization': Who Is Vietjet's Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo?]
Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo, chairwoman of Vietjet, rarely talks about ticket prices when she talks about her airline. She talks about civilization. Before Vietjet started flying, she says, only 1% of Vietnamese had access to air travel. She went after people who had never been on a plane, some who could not read, some who had never left their village. "Taking flight is a sign of civilization," she told a Harvard Business School oral history project in 2017. "When stepping out of their village, our passengers feel like another person and become global citizens."
Thảo is also standing vice chair of HDBank, a private Vietnamese lender, and chairs Sovico Group, which she founded with her husband. She is worth about USD 4.2 billion this year. Her business life began in Moscow, on credit extended by suppliers who trusted her. Vietjet later became famous, and controversial, for its bikini marketing, and she has her own way of explaining that too.
