On April 27th, residents of Ho Chi Minh City and provinces across the country began a five-day holiday for the 30th of April and 1st of May.
A notable trend is that this year, Tan Son Nhat Airport, the busiest in the country, has welcomed a much lower number of passengers compared to the same period last year. One of the reasons is that the aviation industry lacks aircraft, driving up airfares and keeping them at a high level, even though airlines have increased the number of night and early morning flights. Due to high airfares, many people have changed their travel plans and opted for other modes of transportation to celebrate the holiday or visit their hometowns.
Ms. Bich Ngoc (residing in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) shared that in previous years, she always flew back to her hometown in Binh Dinh during the long holiday. However, this year, she switched to traveling by car after seeing that airfares were excessively high. “Even train tickets from Binh Dinh to Ho Chi Minh City cost around 1 million VND, so my family decided to go by car,” Ms. Ngoc explained.
Airfares from Ho Chi Minh City to Phu Quoc remain high, with flights having stopovers instead of being direct and prices being exorbitantly high. Photo taken on the morning of April 27th.
Meanwhile, Mr. Tran Van (residing in Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City) said that he had to cancel his flight back to Quang Nam due to the exorbitant airfares. Approximately two months ago, he started looking for flights back to his hometown but postponed his travel due to the high prices.
“A month ago and again a few days ago, I continued to check airfares, but they were still very high. Round-trip tickets from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang were priced at 4-5 million VND per passenger, comparable to Tet fares, so I decided to stay in Ho Chi Minh City for the holiday,” Mr. Van said.
Several travel agencies reported that tours via road or rail have also seen a significant increase during the holiday period. Tourists are shifting their focus due to rising airfares, driving up tour prices as well.
As of midday on April 27th, there were still tickets available for high-demand flights from Ho Chi Minh City to popular destinations like Hanoi, Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Phu Quoc, but prices were very high. For example, the lowest round-trip fare from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi started at approximately 3 million VND per passenger, but flights departed at 11 p.m. or 12 a.m. The lowest airfare from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang was 2 million VND, resulting in round-trip fares starting at 4 million VND per passenger.
Flights to popular tourist destinations such as Phu Quoc and Da Lat from Ho Chi Minh City are fully booked.
Demand for air travel has increased compared to normal days but remains lower than the same period last year, partly due to high airfares and people changing their plans for visiting their hometowns or going on holiday.
Vietravel Airlines reported that as of April 23rd, the average occupancy rate across the airline’s entire network exceeded 89% (from April 25th to May 2nd). The routes with the highest occupancy rates were Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang, Quy Nhon, and Phu Quoc, reaching close to 95%. For the airline’s international routes, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok (Thailand) had an occupancy rate of 90%.
To meet passenger demand during this period, Vietravel Airlines has coordinated with relevant authorities to increase flight frequencies on major routes between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi and Da Nang or add night flights so that they can operate more frequently and cater to passenger needs.
Earlier, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam sent a document to airlines, requesting that they review their resources and optimize their fleet to consider immediately adding capacity on routes from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to other provinces on April 27th and vice versa on May 1st. This action was taken because some routes between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi and other provinces had booking rates of 90% – 100%, aiming to meet the air transport demand during the extended holiday period.
