More and more private helicopters arriving in Vietnam

Vietnamese businessmen have become the big clients to aircraft manufacturers. Four helicopters ordered by the businessmen were delivered last week, while six more are coming.

Several years ago, the information that two Vietnamese businessmen bought private helicopters, once stirred up the public. The businessmen are Chair of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group Doan Nguyen Duc and Chair of Hoa Phat Group Tran Dinh Long. Vasco (Vietnam Air Service Company) came forward and taking care for the procedures for obtaining licenses, the flight safety certificates and aircraft parking positions.

However, possessing private helicopters has become no more a strange thing to Vietnamese people. Four helicopters ordered by Vietnamese businessmen came last week, while six more are coming to Vietnam in the time to come.

In fact, the helicopters should have arrived sooner. However, due to the problems in following procedures, the delivery of the six other helicopters has been delayed.

Cao Van Son, Chair of Green Planet Company, said that the consignment of four helicopters still remains unclear, being stored at the Hai Phong port. The company also ordered six more helicopters, which should have been aboard for the journey to Vietnam. However, Green Planet has asked the manufacturer to delay the delivery for some time, because the first four helicopters still have not got the customs clearance.

“It is still unclear about the fate of the four private helicopters which have docked at the Vietnamese ports, and when we can fulfill necessary procedures,” he said.

The customs agency said that this is for the first time helicopters arrive by sea; therefore, it still needs to consult with relevant agencies on the import procedures.

“When deciding to carry the helicopters to Vietnam by sea, we did not anticipate the problem,” Son said.

Meanwhile, Green Planet has to pay a fee of 200 dollars a day for keeping the imported helicopters at the port. The four helicopters have been lying at the port for more than one month. As such, the storage fee alone has cost the company 7000 dollar so far.

Green Planet has affirmed that it has petitioned to customs agency, attaching all necessary documents relating to the procurement deals and requesting to create favorable conditions to clear the imports as soon as possible. However, the customs agency just replied that it is consulting with other relevant agencies on the issue.

While the four helicopters are still getting stuck at the port, an investment fund in HCM City has expressed its intention to charter the helicopters to fly on some domestic routes and fly from resorts to casinos.

“If the four helicopters can get customs clearance, we will take more orders and bring more helicopters to Vietnam,” Green Planet has stated.

Meanwhile, the General Department of Customs has affirmed that it has received a dispatch from the Hai Phong Customs Agency, asking about how to deal with the import consignment of helicopters. “We are checking relevant legal documents in order to make the decisions on the issue,” a source said, stressing that in the aviation history, helicopters have never carried by sea before.

According to Green Planet, the first four helicopters include two ATEC 321 manufactured by Czech ATEC vos and two others A600 Talon manufactured by the US Rotoway. All the helicopters are brand new, have the average speed of 300 kilometres per hour, can fly 6 hours continuously. The helicopters use A95 petrol like cars, while the spare parts are cheap and the operation cost is low.

The noteworthy thing is that the helicopters are not too expensive with the price of 150,000 dollars on average, which is equal to the price of a luxury car. However, if comparing with Rolls Royce of Maybach that some Vietnamese businessmen ordered, the helicopters are cheaper.