Ben Anh, managing director of general sales and service agent Indo-Trans Logistics Aviation Services (ITL), believes that after the stormy years of 2008 and 2009, the company is now “back on track for sustainable development”. The Ho Chi Minh City based sales agent has benefited from the “relatively smooth and quick recovery of the economy” he said, a recovery that has seen double digit growth in the south of the country as well as in Hanoi in the north, Anh pointed our. Against this encouraging backdrop: “we are quite well set now, having positioned ourselves since the last quarter of 2009 when the market began to show signs of recovery,” he believes.

He continued:” by focusing on customer service and operational excellence, our customer network has expanded quickly both in the south and north of .

“In particular, we are seeing a high growth in demand in the northern part of the country and, with our strong foothold there, we are serving the market well,” he went on to comment.

Indeed, such has been the pick up in demand that, during the first half of the current year, there was a shortage of freight capacity for Vietnamese exports.

Several airlines had to operate and hoc charters, Anh observed, in order to ramp up the space available to cope with the increasing demand. A number of B747Fs were chartered to keep up with shipments on the sector, for example.

That shortfall in capacity has created its own problems, Anh remarked, saying: “ It’s been a very challenging time but we are very glad to have been able to help our customers clear their backlog and meet the tight delivery schedule form their respective buyers.”

In other news from the company, Anh said: “We are extremely pleased that Kingfisher Airlines chose ITL as its Vietnamese general sales and service agent to represent its interests in the large and growing Indian market.

“This brings to nine the numbers of airlines in that we now represent,” he enthused, going on to consider: “Surely we will not stop at this market keeps on expanding and especially the quantity of electronic exports from the region around Hanoi .”

Another cause for Anh’s optimism is the expansion of one of ITL’s primary customers, Qatar Airways. Next month (November), the Doha-headquartered airline is expecting to open a direct connection to Hanoi via Bangkok with a wide body aircraft flying on a four flights a week frequency.

The carrier is also planning to provide additional Doha – Ho Chi Minh service, he said, adding additional freight capacity on the Vietnamese sector.