胡志明市 — 越捷航空首次飞往捷克共和国的航班使其航线网络首次超越亚太地区，尽管中东冲突和燃料短缺带来挑战，但该航班服务于一个正在增长但服务不足的市场。
HO CHI MINH CITY -- Vietjet's maiden flight to the Czech Republic takes the Vietnamese budget carrier's route network beyond Asia-Pacific for the first time, and serves a growing but underserved market despite challenges posed by conflict in the Middle East and fuel shortages.
越捷航空从河内起飞的客机于周六抵达布拉格，此次飞行历时15小时，途中在哈萨克斯坦的阿拉木图停留。根据越捷航空货运部总经理吴耀宗的说法，该航空公司下一个欧洲目的地是德国柏林，时间定于今年三月，同样经由阿拉木图。法国和英国的航班也在规划中。
A Vietjet plane from Hanoi landed in Prague on Saturday, after a 15-hour flight that included a stopover in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The airline's next European destination is Berlin in March, also via Almaty, according to Vietjet Air Cargo managing director Nelson Wu. Services to France and the U.K. are planned.
越捷航空的欧洲野心挑战了其全服务竞争对手越南航空的主导地位。作为国家航空公司的越南航空已经通过直飞航班和代码共享航班服务数十个欧洲城市，包括意大利和丹麦。
Vietjet's European ambition challenges the dominance of its full-service rival Vietnam Airlines. The flag carrier already serves dozens of European cities through direct services and codeshare flights, including to Italy and Denmark.
吴耀宗上周在领英上发帖，邀请“在越南和中欧之间运输货物的托运人和货运代理”尝试该航空公司的新欧洲航班。
Wu used a LinkedIn post last week to invite "shippers and forwarders with cargo moving between Vietnam and Central Europe" to try the airline's new European services.
越捷航空董事会成员菲利普·罗斯勒在四月接受《日经亚洲》采访时表示，该航空公司将在欧洲航线上使用欧洲制造的空客飞机。公司正在多元化其机队，目前拥有134架空客飞机和一架由美国竞争对手波音制造的飞机。其订单包括约600架更多飞机，其中199架来自美国制造商，并计划租赁由中国商飞制造的10架C909地区喷气式客机。
Philipp Rosler, a Vietjet board member, told Nikkei Asia in an April interview that the airline would deploy European-made Airbus aircraft on European routes. The company is diversifying its fleet of 134 Airbus jets and one made by U.S. rival Boeing. It has orders for around 600 more aircraft, including 199 from the U.S. manufacturer, and plans to lease 10 C909 regional jets built by China's COMAC.
他表示，越捷航空正在超越中东战争的影响，为长期需求增长做准备，包括来自越南不断扩大的中产阶级、亚洲和欧洲游客以及大陆之间日益增长的经贸往来。
He said Vietjet is looking beyond the war in the Middle East to prepare for increased long-term demand, including from Vietnam's expanding middle class, Asian and European tourists and the growing business ties between the continents.
“我们在低成本航空领域非常知名 — — 这是我们的主要业务，”罗斯勒说。然而，对于长途旅行，“人们可能需要稍微多一些便利和舒适”，因此“商业模式必须改变”，他指出，这涉及定价、座位和餐饮。
"We are very well known when it comes to a low-cost carrier -- this is our main business," Rosler said. For long-haul travel, however, "people need maybe slightly more convenience and comfort" so the "business model has to change," he said, citing pricing, seats and food.
廉价航空公司越捷航空正紧随越南国家航空越南航空的脚步，开通其首条欧洲航线。
Budget airline VietJet is following in the slipstream of flag carrier Vietnam Airlines as it inaugurates its first service to Europe.
越捷航空飞往瓦茨拉夫·哈维尔机场的首航航班恰逢本周末利雅得主要机场发生的一起致命袭击事件，凸显了中东持续冲突对航空业构成的挑战。伊朗自2月下旬以来，因美国和以色列的袭击而报复性关闭霍尔木兹海峡，导致全球石油供应受阻，燃油价格居高不下。
The inaugural Vietjet flight to Vaclav Havel Airport coincided with a pair of deadly attacks this weekend on the main airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, underscoring challenges that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East poses to the aviation industry. Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation to the U.S. and Israeli attacks since late February has disrupted global oil supplies and kept fuel prices high.
中东航空公司受到的冲击尤为严重，这为一些亚洲航空公司如国泰航空、新加坡航空、越南航空以及如今的越捷航空提供了部分市场机遇。
Middle Eastern airlines have been especially hard hit, allowing some Asian carriers such as Cathay Pacific Singapore Airlines Vietnam Airlines -- and now Vietjet -- some market opportunities.
越捷航空因燃油短缺而削减了部分航班，但公司表示，它也通过燃油对冲以及与国有石油公司越南石油集团加强合作，成功渡过了难关。
Vietjet cut some flights amid jet fuel shortages, but the company said it also has weathered the storm by hedging fuel and bolstering a strong relationship with state oil company Petrovietnam.
在进军欧洲之前，越南最大的私营航空公司已建立起覆盖东南亚大部分地区的低价航班网络，并延伸至北亚和南亚，包括通过其关联公司越捷泰国航空。该航空公司在该地区最长的航线是从胡志明市到悉尼的八小时航班，但它不愿局限于亚太地区，并提出了“成为全球航空集团”的战略。越捷航空首席执行官阮成山在5月布拉格机票销售开始时如此表示。
Prior to its European entry, Vietnam's biggest private airline has developed a web of low-cost flights covering much of Southeast Asia, as well as North and South Asia, including through its affiliated carrier, Vietjet Thailand The airline's longest route in the region is an eight-hour flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney, but it does not want to be confined to the Asia-Pacific and has a "strategy to become a global aviation group," CEO Nguyen Thanh Son said in May when ticket sales for Prague began.
去年，越捷航空还与哈萨克斯坦的Qazaq Air共同成立了另一家合资企业——越捷哈萨克斯坦航空，为其欧洲 ambitions 提供了中东亚的跳板。
The airline started another joint venture last year, Vietjet Qazaqstan, with Kazakhstan's Qazaq Air, giving it a Central Asian springboard for its European ambitions.
新加坡Sobie Aviation咨询公司创始人布伦丹·索比表示，越捷航空目前是第六家飞往欧洲的东南亚航空公司。他对《日经亚洲》表示，虽然越南航空专注于西欧市场，但越捷航空在“东欧-越南以及整体东欧-东盟市场持续增长，但几乎没有直飞选择”的情况下存在机遇。索比称目前的布拉格航班“更具象征意义”。他说：“我认为真正的游戏规则改变者将是越捷航空推出直飞航班的时候，可能是在A330neo飞机交付之后。”
Brendan Sobie, founder of consultancy Sobie Aviation in Singapore, said Vietjet is now the sixth ASEAN airline flying to Europe. He told Nikkei Asia that while Vietnam Airlines focuses on Western Europe, there is an opportunity for Vietjet "as the Eastern Europe-Vietnam and the overall Eastern Europe-ASEAN market has been growing but there are virtually no direct options." Sobie called the Prague flight "more symbolic" at this point. "I would say the real game changer would be when Vietjet launches nonstop flights, potentially once the A330neos are delivered," he said.