5 hour flight from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City
Booking a flight from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday, July 3, Ms. Khanh Ha (living in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City) chose the 4:45 p.m. flight of Vietjet Air. Calculating the comfortable flight time of about 2 hours, Ms. Ha planned to land at Tan Son Nhat around 7:00 p.m., not too late to avoid the difficulty of taking a taxi from the airport to go home.
However, when preparing to move to Noi Bai airport, Vietjet sent a notification to her phone, saying that her flight had changed its departure time to 18:25 due to operational reasons. Arriving at the airport, completing all procedures, the departure gate opened on time, although the plane started rolling at 18:33, 8 minutes late, Ms. Khanh Ha was still sure that she would not have to wait anymore, so she made an appointment with her family to pick her up at 20:30 at Tan Son Nhat airport. Unexpectedly, the plane rolled and continued to wait until about 18:50 before officially taking off. The flight time was also longer than usual, at exactly 20:50, her flight landed.
Tan Son Nhat Airport is crowded with passengers
After landing, Ms. Khanh Ha and hundreds of passengers still had to stand in line waiting for the plane to open. At exactly 9:28 pm, Ms. Ha was able to reach the door of the domestic terminal of Tan Son Nhat airport. “From the time the plane landed until I got off the plane, it took nearly 40 minutes. If calculated from the time I booked my ticket from the beginning, it would have taken me 5 hours to fly from Noi Bai to Ho Chi Minh City. Late takeoff, slow flight, and still stuck after landing. On the plane, there were mainly families traveling, so there were many children, they screamed and cried because they were tired of waiting…”, Ms. Khanh Ha shook her head in disappointment.
The peak of the summer when demand for travel "explodes" is also the time when flight delays "explode". Statistics from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam show that in June (from May 19 to June 18), there were more than 5,602 delayed flights of domestic airlines, accounting for 18.2% of the number of flights during this period, an increase of 9.4 points compared to May and an increase of 15.9 points compared to the same period.
VietJet Air topped the list with 2,885 delayed flights, accounting for 24% of the total number of flights. Next, Vietnam Airlines had 2,230 delayed flights, accounting for 20.1%.
Airports "complain" about pressure, airlines also suffer
Waiting at airports during this period, the most common sound played on the loudspeaker is an apology to passengers, the flight changed departure time due to a delay.
A representative of Tan Son Nhat International Airport said that many flights taking off and landing late have contributed to creating a chain effect, not only causing congestion at the waiting area inside the terminal but also affecting congestion outside the domestic terminal area. This makes the already stressful shortage of drivers at Tan Son Nhat Airport even more serious when passengers wait for a bus within a certain time frame.
An airline representative shared that there are many reasons why planes cannot arrive at the airport on time to pick up passengers. Regarding subjective reasons, planes are not always available at the airport waiting for passengers but must constantly adjust their rotation to pick up/drop off passengers from one point to another. Especially with low-cost airlines with many passengers, the rotation speed of a plane is fast and continuous.
Vietjet Air
The turnaround time is about 25-30 minutes, provided that all factors are accurate and on time. Therefore, just one factor causing a plane to be delayed at one point will cause delays in the chain of flights at other points. However, this person believes that the plane's delay is only partly due to subjective reasons from the business side, mainly due to external objective factors.
Specifically, during the summer, unusual weather, thunderstorms or winds prevent planes from taking off/landing as planned. Most importantly, the number of passengers has exploded, surpassing the peak of the pre-pandemic period, causing most airports to be overloaded. International flights currently account for only 5% of total operating capacity, the remaining 95% is concentrated on domestic flights, creating huge pressure on the infrastructure of domestic terminals, especially at Tan Son Nhat airport.
There are too many passengers, while the security force in the early stages of the summer peak is still lacking, leading to slow security services and procedures. Along with that, flight service equipment such as buses and ladders do not meet the demand, leading to frequent delays in picking up/dropping off/picking up passengers on/off the plane. Not to mention, the organization and movement of buses and cargo service vehicles often conflict with the movement of the plane, making the time even longer.
Sharing the same opinion, a representative of Vietjet Air affirmed that when planes are "delayed", not only passengers suffer but also airlines suffer. On average, if a plane waits for takeoff or circles for 1 more minute, the airline will spend an additional 100 USD. Assuming that from Noi Bai to Ho Chi Minh City like Ms. Khanh Ha, the plane waits at the taxiway for a total of about 50 minutes, which means Vietjet Air will lose an additional 5,000 USD. Not to mention that fuel costs have increased 3-4 times, the cost pressure is even heavier on businesses.
“No airline wants to see its flights delayed. The key is that airport infrastructure is seriously overloaded, with Tan Son Nhat Airport at the top, followed by Noi Bai. Airports like Da Nang and Phu Quoc are congested at different times. If the airport infrastructure problem is not resolved quickly, the situation will certainly get worse when the international tourism market becomes bustling again,” a Vietjet Air representative worried.
An airline representative further analyzed: Although Tan Son Nhat airport has put into operation 2 new runways, these runways are located next to each other, unable to handle aircraft taking off/landing at the same time. In addition to the low take-off/landing management capacity, the take-off/landing management capacity at Tan Son Nhat only reaches 40-42 flights/hour, much lower than the figure of 65-70 flights/hour at airports in Thailand or other countries, contributing to congestion and flight delays.
