Bamboo Airways is down to one plane — what its collapse costs you on a Vietnam trip

Bamboo Airways once flew 44 aircraft to Melbourne, Sydney, Frankfurt and London as Vietnam's answer to a full-service carrier. As of this week it has one active plane. The airline stopped selling tickets on its scheduled domestic network from 1 August, owes roughly VND440 billion (US$16.8 million) in unpaid taxes, and has a last scheduled service pencilled in for 22 August — after that, the fleet and the airline itself are done. If a Vietnam trip on your calendar leans on a Bamboo leg between Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, or the Da Nang–Macau charter some Hong Kong tour operators used, here's what that actually costs to fix.

From 44 planes to one

This isn't a strike or a bad week — it's a wind-down. Bamboo's fleet fell from 44 aircraft to three, then to a single active Airbus A321 running limited charters. Its international routes to Australia and Europe were already gone; the airline apologised to passengers on 28 July after a wave of cancellations and offered refunds. From 1 August, Bamboo also pulled its Hanoi–Lijiang and Da Nang–Macau charters as no longer commercially viable — the Macau leg specifically mattered for tour groups looping back into the Greater Bay Area without a Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City stopover.

If you're holding a ticket, move now

Refunds through Bamboo's own channels come back as an e-voucher within 7–14 business days — not useful once there's nothing left to fly. A cash refund by email can take up to 90 business days, well past the 22 August cutoff. Paid by credit card? A chargeback through your issuer is the more reliable fallback as that date approaches. Booked via an OTA like Trip.com or Skyscanner? Start the claim there now — a failed airline is exactly what third-party booking protection is for, and it only gets slower as the shutdown proceeds.

What it costs to rebook

Bamboo's exit doesn't open a big price gap — Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet already covered every route it flew. Hanoi–Ho Chi Minh City runs roughly VND4.2–4.5 million on Vietnam Airlines (HKD 1,253–1,343 at today's rate), about where Bamboo priced it. Vietjet advertises the same route from VND3.5–4.2 million (HKD 1,044–1,253), but that's a bare fare — no bag, no seat choice, no meal — and once a 20kg bag is added, the gap to Vietnam Airlines narrows or disappears. What's actually gone is the mid-tier option: Bamboo undercut Vietnam Airlines on comfort-per-dong more often than Vietjet did, and neither remaining carrier fully replaces that slot.

The bigger picture hasn't moved

The dong itself is steady — VND/HKD sits right at its 50-day average, up a rounding-error 0.09% recently — so the underlying case for a Vietnam trip is unchanged from what we laid out when a week in-country ran under HK$10,000. What changed is depth on the ground: two carriers now split a domestic market that had three, and a route like Da Nang–Macau isn't bookable at any price until someone else picks it up.

What to actually do

If you're holding a Bamboo ticket, file the refund today rather than waiting for 22 August to force the question — cash by email if you can absorb the wait, a card chargeback if you can't. When comparing Vietnam Airlines against Vietjet, price both with a checked bag and seat selection added, not the headline fare. If your route depended on the Da Nang–Macau charter, plan a standard Da Nang– or Ho Chi Minh City–HKG connection instead. See how Vietnam reads against its own currency and inflation history on its destination page before you rebook.