An extraordinary shareholder's meeting on September 15 saw more board upheaval at Bamboo Airways (QH, Hanoi Noi Bai International), with three directors resigning and two replacements elected. Three members of the airline's supervisory board were also replaced. The resignations continue a period of board instability at Viet Nam's third-largest airline.

Citing documents released before the shareholders' meeting, multiple Vietnamese media reports said board vice chairman Hideki Oshima, Doan Huu Doan, and Tran Hoa Binh are exiting the board. At the meeting, the three gentlemen were replaced by Phan Dinh Tue and Thi Truc Quynh.

Tue also sits on the board of directors at the Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank), a major Bamboo Airways creditor. He told shareholders that Sacombank is eyeing a stake in the airline if it can get regulatory approval. He says that despite Bamboo's current challenges, the bank is optimistic about its future and watching the restructuring process. The second new board member, Thi Truc Quynh, is an internal promotion and works as Bamboo's deputy general director. Thi will be the only female to sit on the five-person board.

The departing Oshima, a former senior executive at JAL - Japan Airlines (JL, Tokyo Haneda), was recruited to the board earlier this year and served as its chairman for two weeks over June/July before being replaced by Le Thai Sam, now Bamboo's biggest shareholder. Oshima, who will reportedly stay on as an advisor to Bamboo, has four decades of aviation industry experience and was expected to play a key role in overseeing the carrier's financial and operational restructuring.

The outgoing Doan Huu Doan joined the board in mid-2022, while Tran Hoa Binh only took his board position in June. Doan is an official of the Himram Group and has close ties to Bamboo's founding company and former majority shareholder, the FLC Group. A list of replacement candidates will be submitted to shareholders at this week's meeting, the third time this year that shareholders have been asked to approve significant board changes.

In addition, Nguyen Thi Huu, Nguyen Bich Ngoc, and Nguyen Dang Khoa stepped down from their roles at Bamboo's board of supervisors. The trio were only elected to the five-year role in June. They were replaced by Nguyen Thi Hong Cam, Pham Van Phung, and Nguyen Dang Khoa.

Also on the agenda at the September 15 meeting is a proposal to reduce the number of legal representatives of Bamboo's Airways from the current three (comprising the chairman, one board member, and the CEO) to just one representative director.

Le Thai Sam has previously said that changes to the board and Bamboo's senior management were necessary to complete a restructuring to restore the airline to profitability. The airline, which posted a calendar 2022 loss of VND17.6 trillion dong (USD743.4 million) and is forecast to post another loss this year, was recently the subject of bankruptcy speculation, which it denied. Nonetheless, after an appeal for assistance, Viet Nam's prime minister intervened and formally instructed relevant government agencies to support the airline's restructuring efforts.