It was the first privately owned airline to be established in Vietnam, being granted its initial approval to operate by the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance in November 2007.

Despite the setbacks, VietJet Air's first flight was operated on 25 December 2011, flying from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi.

[13] Airline officials gave different reasons for the delays, including increased fuel prices and other financial problems, as well as unresolved branding conflicts with the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV).

[17] The airline's maiden flight was eventually launched on 25 December 2011, flying from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi.

[6] The Vietnam aviation authority fined VietJet Air US$960 in 2012 for organizing five women of candidates in a local beauty contest to perform a Hawaiian themed-dance without first gaining permission to celebrate its maiden flight to the tourist hub of Nha Trang.

In February 2014, at the opening of that year's Singapore Airshow, the airline firmed up orders with Airbus for 60 A320 aircraft at a list price of $6.4 billion.

[22] In May 2016 during a state visit of US President Barack Obama, an order for 200 Boeing 737 MAX aeroplanes was signed, with deliveries to start in 2019.

The airline raised $167 million from the listing, making it the biggest IPO on the Vietnamese stock market to date[26] and accounting for 1.5% of HOSE's capitalization at the time.