Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) — Jetstar Pacific Airlines, the Vietnamese carrier part-owned by Qantas Airways Ltd., has been criticized by authorities for “very poor and ineffective” safety practices, the Age newspaper reported.

Defects and violations were hidden from supervisors, facilities were substandard and the airline didn’t have enough maintenance personnel, the newspaper reported, citing a report by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.

The airline was ordered to remove its general director and two other employees from their posts, the newspaper said.

“Jetstar Pacific is working to address the administrative and operational matters raised by the Vietnamese aviation authority,’” the airline said in an e-mailed statement dated Jan. 13 “Jetstar Pacific remains confident of its engineering and safety record, and continues to work closely with the CAAV, as it has always done.”

Olivia Wirth, a spokeswoman for Sydney-based Qantas, declined to comment, and said the CAAV report was an issue for Jetstar Pacific. Qantas owns 27 percent of Jetstar Pacific while the majority is controlled by the Vietnamese government.
Source: bloomberg