5 months for the first flight
Emirates Airlines – the world's most luxurious 5-star airline, few know it took 2 years to acquire its first aircraft. In 1985, after its establishment, Emirates had to operate 2 fully leased aircraft. But after only 5 years of operation, the airline's network had reached 14 destinations worldwide.
Emirates Airlines is a typical story of development speed in the global aviation industry, alongside a few other renowned names like Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, or Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong). In Vietnam, although in recent years the aviation industry has been seen as "galloping", the development speed is still quite modest. However, with the launch of Sun PhuQuoc Airways (SPA) at the end of 2025, the landscape of the Vietnamese aviation industry seems to have changed significantly, as the young airline belonging to Sun Group has a development speed worthy of a global record.
Officially approved for investment policy on May 20, 2025, but SPA's first commercial flight took off on November 1, 2025, which is less than half a year later. This is an almost unimaginable figure for an airline. In Vietnam, most airlines take about over a year to be able to take off their first flight. The national airline also needed 9 months from its establishment date to take its first flight.
And it also took a total of nearly 9 months for Sun Group's latest "darling" to overcome the most challenging issues in the aviation industry, from signing strategic cooperation agreements with airports, searching for and signing with leading global aviation technology corporations, achieving the highest standards in aircraft operations, aviation training organization, aviation safety, to aircraft purchase and sale deals worth millions of dollars…
Almost unimaginable figures
Right after the first aircraft landed in August 2025, SPA continued to be a "storm" of speed, owning up to 10 aircraft in less than 6 months. Among them are 5 brand-new Airbus A321NX aircraft, making SPA the airline with the youngest fleet in Vietnam.
This is a rare speed of aircraft ownership worldwide. Cathay Pacific is famous for its extensive flight network around the world, but in its first year of establishment, it only owned a single aircraft; or Qatar Airways – the airline that has won the title of best in the world 9 times – only had 4 used aircraft in its first year of operation.
However, the figure of 10 aircraft in the first 6 months of operation was not a number that SPA airline was satisfied with. Right in the first days of the new year 2026, SPA has created an unprecedented deal in the history of Vietnam aviation: signing a contract worth 22.5 billion USD to purchase 40 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner wide-body aircraft.
If Emirates needed 20 years to make history with an order of 42 Boeing 777 aircraft – the world's largest order at the time in 2005, then after only 6 months of operation, SPA has the largest order in Vietnam, purchasing 40 wide-body aircraft from the world's leading aerospace group Boeing, opening a new chapter in the history of Vietnam aviation.
After this record-breaking deal, no one doubts SPA's fleet capability to reach 25 aircraft in 2026, 100 aircraft in 2030, and 200 aircraft by 2035. This means, according to calculations, if Singapore Airlines (among the world's top airlines) needed about 50 years to acquire 200 aircraft, SPA aims to achieve that number in just 10 years.
It is only a matter of time before SPA is ready for growth figures that many aviation industry experts also consider "almost impossible".
Why can a "newcomer" be so rapid?
SPA's rapid growth is also reflected in its network expansion speed. Taking Phu Quoc as the hub for its radial network, after 6 months of operation, SPA has exploited domestic routes to major economic and tourist centers such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Nha Trang. After the first international route to Taipei on March 29, 2026, SPA plans to open routes connecting Phu Quoc to Seoul, Busan, Singapore, Bangkok, Hongkong, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Kaohsiung in 2026.
SPA is also a rare phenomenon in the Vietnamese aviation industry, with its On-Time Performance (OTP) index ranking among the industry leaders for 3 consecutive months. After half a year of operation, the airline has also quickly built its own operational ecosystem, such as: Sun Executive Lounge, mobile application, soon to be a loyalty system for frequent customers, dedicated combos on the Sun Holiday tourism platform, and a dedicated catering facility in Phu Quoc… The highest compliance with aviation industry standards and thorough investment in "5-star full service" have shown that SPA has not only grown rapidly in scale but also set "above-standard" service standards right from the initial stage.
What is the foundation for a "newcomer" like SPA to achieve such a record-breaking development speed? It is not only the strength of financial potential, rapid implementation capabilities, and strategic cooperation with global aviation giants, but also a long-term vision aimed at building an aviation "empire" in Vietnam and the region. Sun Group – with its foundation as one of Vietnam's leading private economic groups, possessing an international-class tourism ecosystem – has even made SPA the only airline in the world capable of offering passengers a seamless "fly-stay-play" journey without limits. And just by observing how this Group is comprehensively directing its development in the aviation sector, it is enough to believe that the Vietnamese aviation game on its journey to reach global standards may achieve remarkable accomplishments.
