There are two national airlines companies and one private airline company in Laos: the Lao Airlines (developed from Lao Aviation, operated since 1976), Lao Air (operated since 2002) and Lao Central Airline (operated in 2012)
Lao Airlines is 100% owned by the Lao Government since 2000. Lao Airlines has used ATR 72-202, Xian MA60, ATR 72-500 and A320 planes. Operate domestic flights and international flights to neighboring countries and planned for the future, the new international routes will be open in the end of 2012 are Vientiane - Tokyo, Vientiane - Seoul (see details on article "Flights to & from Laos"). They have lots of sales-ticketing offices in many countries and the system of booking online with e-tickets makes the booking of the flight easier.
The second national airlines company, Lao Air, takes a small part of domestic flights. It flies to where Lao Airlines actually do not fly (but used to fly) as Vientiane-Samneua-Vientiane, Vientiane-Boun Neua (Phongsaly)-Vientiane, Vientiane-Sayabouly-Vientiane and soon it will open new route Vientiane-Xieng Khouang-Luang Prabang. The Lao Air is well known for charter flights, specially to remote areas. The Lao Air has Cessna 208 (Grand Caravan), MI-8T, MI -17V1, AS-350 B2.
Lao Central Airline is the first private-owned airline based in Vientiane aiming at using mid-sized jet aircraft (B737-400) to serve regional market. Lao Central Airline operate domestic flights and international flights to neighboring countries (see details on article "Flights to & from Laos").
International companies operate flights to Laos as Thai Airways, Vietnam Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Bangkok Airways and Air Asia (see details on article "Flights to & from Laos").
