Sales soar as Vietnam Airlines celebrates soft launch of King Power Traveler duty free programme

VIETNAM. King Power Traveller Co (KPT), Vietnam Airlines Catering Service (VACS) and Vietnam Airlines (VNA) have celebrated the soft relaunch of the carrier’s onboard duty free programme.

As reported, KPT was awarded the airline’s inflight retail concession earlier this year. The Hong Kong-based company was charged with formulating, redesigning and re-launching an exciting new duty free programme.

The full system wide launch of the programme, called LotuShop, is planned for October 2018.

Vietnam Airlines Executive Vice President Le Hong Ha said: “The partnership with King Power Traveler demonstrates our efforts to provide passengers with an enhanced duty free retail service, thereby consistently upgrading our four-star service quality through every aspect of the business. We are taking great strides to reach five-star status.”

“We are proud to share that the level of sales achieved is more than double of what we had previously recorded with other operators in the past.” – Vietnam Airlines Catering Service, General Manager Nguyen Quang De 

King Power Group (HK), Chairman and Managing Director Antares Cheng said: “We are honoured Vietnam Airlines has chosen KPT as their service provider. I am confident that our President, Rakhita Jaywardena, with his vast knowledge and expertise combined with the dedication of the KPT team, will deliver an exemplary duty free service that will meet and exceed the expectations of Vietnam Airlines and its passengers.”
 

VACS General Manager Nguyen Quang De, speaking at the inaugural airline’s cabin crew duty free sales award ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on 21 September, said, “Vietnam Airlines and VACS are extremely pleased with the results of the initial launch of the Lotushop inflight duty free retail programme.

“We are proud to share that the level of sales achieved is more than double of what we had previously recorded with other operators in the past. Hence, we would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank our partner, Rakhita Jayawardena, the President of KPT, and his team at KPT for a professional job done towards achieving this enhanced sales revenue.”

   King Power Traveler President Rakhita Jaywardena said Lotushop would become a strong brand “delivering a
qualitative profit-oriented passenger service”.
 

King Power Traveler Co President Jayawardena added: “The enthusiasm and commitment from the airline’s top management downwards to the cabin crew towards the success of Lotushop is enormous. Combined with the extensive international route network of Vietnam Airlines and KPT’s experience, we are confident that we can build Lotushop to a strong brand delivering a qualitative profit-oriented passenger service.”

Vietnam Airlines operates more than 100 aircraft, with 90 routes to 20 domestic and 29 international destinations. The airline has been awarded 4-star status by Skytrax for two years running, and placed 14th among the 20 best premium class airlines in the world. Vietnam Airlines was recognised as the Asia Pacific Airline of the Year 2017 by CAPA.

Vietnam Airlines’ top-selling cabin crew members were honoured at a special ceremony.
 

The carrier, a member of SkyTeam alliance, operates 90 routes to 20 domestic and 29 international destinations with an average of 400 flights per day. Its extensive route network, connect many of the world’s major cities including London, Paris, Frankfurt, Melbourne, Sydney and Moscow and key Asian destinations in Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Many of these are high-spending routes in retail terms. Vietnam Airlines operates 35 weekly flights to Korean destinations Incheon and Pusan, 35 weekly flights to Japanese destinations Narita, Kansai and Haneda, 35 weekly flights to Taipei and Kaohsiung, and 19 weekly flights to Chinese destinations Shanghai and Beijing.

King Power Traveler Co, based in Hong Kong, is the dedicated inflight operating division of King Power Group Hong Kong. It handles a diverse portfolio of airline duty free concessions in the Asia Pacific region with the majority of these accounts being national carriers. President Rakhita Jayawardena is a world-renowned inflight retail specialist with over three decades of experience managing over 55 airlines globally during his career.

Antares Cheng (left) and Rakhita Jayawardena, two of Asia’s most-respected and long-serving travel retail executives.