The 30/4 – 1/5 holiday falls on Tuesday and Wednesday this year. If you take a day off on Monday 29/4, plus the previous Saturday and Sunday, you can have a 5-day continuous holiday. However, due to high airfare, many consumers have proactively planned for a short-distance trip by car or train. “We will postpone our long holiday until summer, when the kids have finished their exams. For the upcoming 2-day holiday, my family will go on a self-driving trip within a 100 km radius to save money,” shared Mrs. Hong Minh from Hanoi.
COMPANIES MAKE EARLY PLANS
Fearing scarcity and a sudden increase in airfare during peak periods like previous years, travel companies have started selling tours for the 30/4 – 1/5 holiday very early. Mr. Le Hong Thai, Deputy Director of Hanoitourist Travel Company, said that the company has been selling travel tours for the 30/4 – 1/5 holiday since immediately after the Lunar New Year 2024. The main reason is to prevent the scarcity of air tickets during the peak season like in previous years. In addition, it is to avoid the high price increases after the price cap has increased since 1/3.
Similarly, Mr. Tran The Dung, CEO of Vietluxtour, also said that his company has been selling travel tours for the 30/4 – 1/5 holiday very early, and currently, many customers are interested in asking for prices. According to the leaders of the companies, the tour prices in the near future will increase by 5 to 7% due to the increase in air ticket prices. This will strongly affect the travel demand of the people. Therefore, to attract customers, travel companies have to find ways to adapt.
Mr. Le Trung Tin, Director of Tin Viet Travel Company in Thu Duc City, said that the number of customers booking flights for the 30/4 holiday has decreased by 50% compared to last year, amidst an increase of 20 – 40% in airfare. Tin said that in previous years, customers could avoid high prices by choosing a weekday to travel or an undesirable time of the day. “This year, even if you choose a good time or a bad time, the ticket prices will not decrease much. We have designed more short-day road tours at affordable prices,” Tin said.
Mr. Nguyen Tien Dat, CEO of AZA Travel, said that the company mainly sells two types of services: all-inclusive tours and combos (including flights and accommodations). The number of customers buying tours or combos including flights this year has decreased by 40 – 50%. Instead, the number of customers buying international tours or booking accommodations in places that can be reached by car has increased by 20 – 30%. In the North, the number of customers booking accommodations has increased significantly in Cat Ba, Quang Ninh, Sam Son, Sa Pa, and Van Don. In the South, the most popular destinations for booking accommodations are Mui Ne and Vung Tau.
Ms. Le Thi Thu Hang, Director of Business Development at Passio Travel Vietnam, shared: “At the end of 2023, high airfare made it difficult for tourists to choose domestic destinations, especially Phu Quoc. Business has been unstable recently, and tour prices have to face further price increases, causing domestic tourists to turn their backs on domestic tours. For the upcoming holiday season, Passio Travel Vietnam will have to diversify land and rail products to adapt to the current situation.”
AIRLINES FIND IT DIFFICULT TO INCREASE FLIGHTS
Compared to the same period one month before the holidays in previous years, this year’s holiday airfare on popular routes has increased by 600,000 to 1 million VND. Specifically, if you choose the route Hanoi – Phu Quoc for travel from 27/4 to 1/5, the lowest airfare with Vietnam Airlines ranges from 4,389,000 VND/ticket/one-way, and the highest is 13,005,000 VND/ticket/one-way.
On the same route, if you fly with Vietjet Air, passengers will have to pay fares ranging from 2,500,000 VND/ticket/one-way (excluding taxes and fees) to 4,500,000 VND/ticket/one-way (excluding taxes and fees). Also during this time, if passengers from Hanoi travel to Danang with Vietnam Airlines, ticket prices will range from 2,500,000 VND – 4,700,000 VND/ticket/one-way. With Vietjet, the lowest fare is 1,590,000 VND – 3,090,000 VND/ticket/one-way (excluding taxes and fees).
The Hanoi – Quy Nhon route is one of the routes with the highest price increases among the main tourist routes. Round-trip airfares for the period surveyed from 27/4 – 30/4 are priced at 5,000,000 VND. Meanwhile, the HCM City – Hanoi route, connecting tourist destinations in the North, has fares of about 4,300,000 VND round-trip – higher than the average fare of this route on normal days by about 1 million VND.
Explaining the high airfare, a representative of an airline said that the high airfare currently is not necessarily due to the sudden increase in travel demand but mostly because the airlines have not increased the supply of tickets for the peak season. At this time, some families have planned their holidays and purchased tickets, but the number of flights is still low, and low-priced tickets have been sold out, so only high-priced tickets are available.
In addition, the aviation market situation this year has many fluctuations. The ticket prices were adjusted during the period when A321 aircraft with Pratt & Whitney engines had to stop operating for maintenance, leading to a reduction in supply for the market. However, flights departing from HCM City are larger routes, with more capacity, so ticket prices for the holiday season are not “hot” yet.
“The holiday periods are the times when airlines take the opportunity to make up for the low season costs, so it is difficult to find cheap tickets. At this time, the travel demand is high, and flights are fully booked in both directions,” said a representative of an airline. At present, the possibility of airlines increasing capacity is very low because the holiday falls in the middle of the week, so although the demand from customers is high compared to normal days, it will not boom. In addition, the airlines also find it difficult to increase flights due to the shortage of aircraft.
According to travel companies, the widespread reduction of air routes by airlines, especially routes to famous tourist destinations such as Phu Quoc and Con Dao, is causing great difficulties for domestic tourism businesses. To limit the impact on the tourism market and create favorable conditions for people to travel more during the holidays, airlines are also launching many attractive promotion programs.
Specifically, Vietnam Airlines has just launched a discounted airfare program for domestic routes starting from 69,000 VND (excluding taxes and fees) and for round-trip international routes with prices starting from 49 USD (excluding taxes and fees). Bamboo Airways has also updated the fares for many international routes with prices starting from 5 USD/one-way (excluding taxes and fees) and many domestic routes with prices starting from 26,000 VND (excluding taxes and fees). Vietjet Air has also resumed many international routes and offers discounted fares starting from 959,000 VND/ticket/one-way (excluding taxes and fees), and domestic routes with fares starting from 49,000 VND/ticket/one-way…
