National carrier Vietnam Airlines is set to officially establish an inflight duty free service from October in cooperation with inflight specialist King Power Traveler, the Rakhita Jayawardena-run subsidiary of Hong Kong-based travel retailer King Power Group.
Over the next five years, the SkyTeam alliance member will cooperate with King Power Traveler to expand and upgrade its Lotushop services to meet Skytrax four-star service standards.
Skytrax – the well-known airline and airport rating organisation – has ranked Vietnam Airlines as a four-star airline for three consecutive years.
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.”
The enhanced duty free offer covers categories such as perfume, cosmetics, watches, suitcases and bags. Passengers will be able to shop from their seats on 30 of Vietnam Airlines’ international routes including to the UK, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Russia. The airline said that passengers would benefit from average discounts of -5% to -15% compared to domestic retail prices.
King Power Traveler will also provide extensive training to flight attendants to enhance their sales skills and application of technology.
Vietnam Airlines operates 90 routes to 20 domestic and 29 international destinations with an average of 400 flights per day.