Not only are passengers and travel companies frustrated about flight delays, cancellations, and ticket prices, they are also worried about the upcoming Tet flight schedule and the risk of delays and cancellations as demand for air travel is forecast to continue to increase while many airlines are reducing their fleets and frequencies.
The risk of flight delays and cancellations is expected to increase as demand for air travel continues to rise while many airlines reduce their fleets and frequencies.
Passengers suffer from flight delays and cancellations.
Bamboo Airways and Vietravel Airlines not only reduced the number of aircraft, but also cut many routes, causing disruption to their schedules. Many angry passengers said they were affected by airlines constantly delaying and canceling flights, not only domestic but also international flights. Some flights were canceled and they had to wait several weeks for a refund.
For example, many customers complained that Vietravel Airlines continuously had delays from morning to afternoon, from one day to the next. Most recently, flight VU780 Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi on October 21, originally scheduled to depart at 5:45 p.m., was delayed until early morning on October 22! Customers whose schedules were affected by the flight schedule had difficulty reaching the airline's support staff when calling.
Vietravel Airlines, which had massively expanded its domestic and international routes, has now reduced its fleet from six planes to just three, disrupting its operations. Meanwhile, Bamboo Airways is cutting back on a series of domestic and international flights, leaving customers who have purchased tickets with the airline in limbo.
A survey on the airline's website about the Hanoi - Frankfurt route in November showed that passengers could not find any flights. According to our records, since November 4, Bamboo Airways has stopped operating from Vietnam to Australia and Germany. Passengers who have purchased tickets have suddenly received notice of flight cancellations, and the airline has offered to reschedule flights early until the end of October or refunds. However, waiting for the airline to refund takes at least a few weeks, while buying tickets from other airlines is twice as expensive.
The airline's domestic flights have also sharply reduced their frequency since October 28. For example, the Hanoi - Con Dao route has been reduced from 3 flights to 1-2 flights/day, Hanoi - Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City - Hai Phong from 2-3 flights to 1 flight/day. The Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City route has been reduced from 9-11 flights to 7-9 flights/day...
Need a "conductor" for Tet flight season
After tycoon Trinh Van Quyet got into trouble with the law, Bamboo Airways has been restructured but the situation is still not optimistic. According to the announcement in the 2022 financial report, Bamboo Airways lost about 17,600 billion VND - an unprecedented number for this airline. Meanwhile, debts to suppliers such as fuel, ground services, airports... are very serious, with the possibility of stopping service provision.
The airline has gone from 30 aircraft to 17, and is likely to reduce further in the coming period. As of November 2023, the airline has completely stopped providing long-haul flights, including flights to Frankfurt (FRA), London (LGW), Melbourne (MEL) and Sydney (SYD); the airline abruptly cut the London route in mid-October and other routes look set to end in the coming days.
With the number of planes and flights decreasing sharply, airfares are set high by airlines, with low season airfares being equal to high season airfares. Domestic round-trip airfares are even higher than package tours to countries in the region, causing tourism businesses to worry about a lack of customers and Vietnamese tourists turning around and traveling abroad.
Airlines have opened ticket sales early for Tet, but ticket prices on many routes have been pushed up quite high, even more than double compared to normal days. For example, ticket prices for flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi during Tet are more than 3 million VND/ticket, double the normal price, and at times, the price of economy class tickets is even up to 5-6 million VND/round trip ticket.
According to an aviation expert, to limit the possibility of airlines indiscriminately raising ticket prices with the excuse of only carrying one-way passengers during the peak Tet season, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam needs to predict the total number of passengers to plan early. For example, requiring airlines to increase flights immediately to have adequate supply, to compensate for the cost of selling at the beginning for the aviation industry.
"In addition to the efforts of the airline, the role of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam in regulating plays an extremely important role. Regulating aircraft operations, checking and supervising the situation of airlines increasing prices to each other, affecting people's purchasing power" - this person said and believed that if there is an early plan for passenger transport during peak season, the aviation industry will create a healthy environment, passengers will not have to buy tickets at too high prices.
Statistics from July 2023 to September 2023 of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam show that the operating frequency of airlines is decreasing quite sharply.
Specifically, in July 2023, Vietnamese airlines operated a total of 28,260 flights, and by September there were 21,204 flights. Airlines that reduced their flight frequencies the most, in order, include Bamboo Airways, Vietravel Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, and Vietjet...
