VietNamNet Bridge – On December 27 and 28, passengers calling the offices of budget airlines to ask about ticket bookings were told to ring later. Chief Representatives of Air Asia in Vietnam Bui Duc Hanh said that the number of tickets sold via the Internet had been decreasing dramatically in the last few days.
There is a notice on the website of Air Asia, saying that the earthquake had disrupted the Internet, and those who want information about airfare and ticket bookings should call the office or come directly to the office. Mr Hanh said that today, the staff at sales agents could access the Internet, but the line was still unstable.
Tiger Airways has also been facing the same situation. In the morning on December 27, the network connecting the ticket agent in Vietnam and the Singapore-based booking system was paralised, and all the passengers were asked to delay their bookings until the next day. Communication has been resumed; however it also continues to be unstable.
Commercial banks have asked telecom companies to fix their transmission lines. “MasterCard cannot be used these days, while forward trading floors have also been suffering,” said an official from the Vietnam Technological and Commercial Bank (Techcombank). Vietcombank has also been complaining about the interruption of the Visa international payment system.
In the world, Reuters Group Plc said that all clients in Japan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan could not access Reuters’ services though temporary measures had been undertaken in Tokyo on the day of the cable breakdown.
Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom said that two of the four undersea cables had been disrupted by the quake, which had led to the decrease of half of its international telecommunications volume.
Calls to Southeast Asia these days have been suffering most. In the morning on December 27, successful calls were just 2% of total calls, and the figure had increased to only 10% by the afternoon on the same day.
(Source: VNE) | 
