Vietnam sees air freight boom as exports boost economy

Hanoi

ON a rainy night in Ho Chi Minh City, a half dozen ground handlers in reflective vests grunt and yell as they jockey an aluminium container onto the main deck of an Airbus A320 cargo plane bound for Hong Kong.

"Look at this container - packed full," George Berczely, general director of DHL Express in Vietnam, said in late October as he stood in the cargo hold filling up with electronics, designer clothes and glassware at the airport in former Saigon. "This symbolises the rest of trade in Vietnam. We are going to have a good fourth quarter."