Update, 22 August 2026 — Bamboo Airways has stopped scheduled flying. The airline halted sales of scheduled domestic tickets on 1 August 2026 and operated its final scheduled service on 22 August 2026. Its fleet is down to three aircraft on the books with a single active A321, now used for contracted charter work rather than tickets you can buy. Do not plan a 2026 or 2027 trip around Bamboo Airways. Book Vietnam Airlines or Vietjet instead, and see our domestic flights guide for routes and fares. The history below explains how it got here.
Bamboo Airways launched in 2019 as the third Vietnamese airline to matter, pitched as a "hybrid" between full-service and low-cost — more legroom than Vietjet, a free meal, but cheaper than Vietnam Airlines. For a while it worked. By 2022 the airline had over 30 aircraft including Boeing 787-9 widebodies, was flying to London, Frankfurt, and Melbourne, and was eyeing a US IPO.
Then it all came apart.
What actually happened to Bamboo Airways?
Bamboo's parent company, FLC Group, collapsed in 2022-2023. Founder and FLC chairman Trinh Van Quyet was arrested on stock manipulation charges in March 2022 and later convicted. FLC's listed companies were suspended, credit lines pulled, and the airline — never profitable on its own — ran out of operating cash.
The 2023 restructuring was brutal:
- All five Boeing 787-9 widebodies returned to lessors.
- International long-haul routes (London, Frankfurt, Melbourne) discontinued.
- Most regional international routes cut or reduced.
- Fleet shrunk from ~30 aircraft to a much smaller narrowbody-only operation.
- Thousands of staff let go.
- New investors took over the airline; the carrier survived, barely.
Through the first half of 2026 Bamboo was a functioning but much smaller airline, flying Airbus A320/A321 narrowbodies on a handful of domestic trunk routes plus a regional service to Bangkok. That operation ended on 22 August 2026, when the last scheduled flight departed. The description below is a record of what the airline was, not what you can book.
What does the current product look like?
On paper, Bamboo still sells three fare families — Economy, Business, and a couple of bundle variants. On A320/A321 narrowbodies, "Business" means the front couple of rows with a wider recliner, extra legroom, priority boarding, and a proper meal. It is not a lie-flat bed. It is a reasonably comfortable 90-minute-to-2-hour product.
Economy includes a checked bag on most fare types (confirm at booking — the cheapest promo fares sometimes don't), a small snack and drink, and standard A320-family seat pitch. The in-flight product, when it's running, is genuinely pleasant — cabin crew are well trained, the aircraft interiors are reasonably fresh, and the overall feel is closer to Vietnam Airlines than to Vietjet.
The problem is frequency. On a route where Vietnam Airlines runs 10 daily flights and Vietjet runs 12, Bamboo might run 2 or 3. If one is canceled or delayed, your rebooking options within Bamboo are limited.
Is Bamboo Airways worth booking in 2026?
It depends on the route and the price.
Book Bamboo when:
- It's meaningfully cheaper than Vietnam Airlines on a route you can fly at Bamboo's schedule.
- You want a slightly better product than Vietjet for a few extra dollars.
- You're flying a short domestic hop and have schedule flexibility.
Skip Bamboo when:
- You're on a tight itinerary with a cruise, international onward flight, or one-time event.
- You need multiple daily flight options on the route.
- The price delta over Vietjet is more than $20 — at that point, just pay for Vietnam Airlines.
Rough comparison
| Vietnam Airlines | Bamboo | Vietjet | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checked bag in fare | Usually yes | Usually yes | Paid extra |
| Meal/snack | Yes | Yes (small) | Paid extra |
| Seat pitch | Standard | Standard | Tight (29") |
| Daily frequency | High | Low | High |
| OTP (typical) | Good | Average | Below average |
| Price | Highest | Middle | Lowest |
How to book
Use bambooairways.com directly. Fare display is clearer than OTAs, and in a post-restructuring world you want the ticket issued by the carrier, not a middleman. Major OTAs (Traveloka, Trip.com, 12Go) also sell Bamboo; prices are usually matched.
One practical point: travel insurance matters more with smaller airlines. If you're booking Bamboo three months out, buy a policy that covers airline insolvency. It's usually $20-40 and buys peace of mind.
Routes Bamboo still flies well
- Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City — still a trunk route for Bamboo with multiple daily flights.
- Hanoi to Da Nang — served, but check schedule density before booking.
- Hanoi-Nha Trang and Hanoi-Phu Quoc — retained as leisure-heavy trunk routes.
For the broader mode comparison, see our getting around Vietnam guide and the domestic flights overview.
The honest verdict
Bamboo Airways is no longer a scheduled airline. Right to the end it ran the most punctual operation in Vietnam — 83.2% on-time for 2025, the best of any carrier here — and that is the part worth remembering: it did not fail operationally, it failed financially, and no punctuality statistic warns you about that. For flights today, use Vietnam Airlines or Vietjet. Travelers who lived through the 2023 wave of cancellations won't have forgotten.
Limitations
Bamboo Airways went through financial restructuring in 2023-2024 that reduced its fleet by roughly half and triggered route cancellations across the domestic network — the carrier's operational stability has not fully recovered, and some routes that appeared in 2022-era guides are no longer flown. Workaround: verify current route availability directly via the Bamboo Airways website or a current aggregator before assuming the carrier serves your city pair; have a backup option (Vietnam Airlines or VietJet) confirmed for the same dates in case Bamboo's schedule changes.
The mid-premium positioning that originally distinguished Bamboo from VietJet (slightly better service, fewer delays) narrowed during the restructuring — the price-quality gap is now smaller than it was pre-2023. Workaround: compare current fares directly rather than assuming Bamboo's pre-2023 reputation; on price-sensitive routes the savings vs Vietnam Airlines may not justify the operational-risk premium Bamboo now carries.