Soon after Vietnam Airlines announced it would offer lower airfares for domestic flights during Tet, the joint stock air carrier Pacific Airlines on December 28 also announced airfare decreases for domestic flights.

Both Vietnam Airlines and Pacific Airlines are now offering the promotional airfare of VND800,000 from HCM City to Hanoi, but the former requires passengers to book tickets 10 days in advance, while passengers just have to book tickets 7 days in advance with the latter.

Vietnam Airlines plans to provide nearly 800 flights more during the Tet holiday, while Pacific Airlines will add 14 flights only. In fact, the two air carriers are just reserving a small percentage of seats for passengers that buy tickets at promotional prices. If Vietnam Airlines and Pacific Airlines offered those prices for all their flights, they would suffer losses.

For the “special” airfare of VND800,000, Vietnam Airlines’ passengers can only take flights after 9 pm every day, while with Pacific Airlines passengers can take any flight in the day. The passengers that fly with the preferential airfare will not be able to enjoy services, including drinks and meals.

According to Vietnam Airlines, it can carry 5,000 passengers per day from Hanoi to HCM City, while the figure is 1,025 for Pacific Airlines.

A source told Tien phong that soon after Vietnam Airlines announced the promotional airfare, many passengers booked seats for  fear that only a few tickets were available.

However, Head of the Vietnam Airlines’ Passenger Marketing Division Trinh Hong Quang said that there was still much more room in non-rush hours. Passengers always like booking flights from 6am to 6pm.

“If they change their plan just a little and take flights in other hours, they will still have the chance to fly with Vietnam Airlines.” Mr Quang said.

What most worries passengers is that many flights will be cancelled or delayed due to the limited transport capacity, while there are numerous passengers. However, a representative from Vietnam Airlines said that cancellations and delays could happen at any time, not only on Tet days. He said that the possible biggest problem was fog, which can cause difficulties at take-offs and landings, or even cause flight cancellations.

Vietnam Airlines is also considering providing more international flights to serve Viet Kieu who fly home on Tet. The air carrier has decided to provide more flights from Russia to Vietnam. From December 25 to January 7, 2007, Vietnam Airlines will add 5 flights from Moscow to HCM City. Currently, there are three flights a week on this route.

Besides, the air carrier is also considering providing more flights from Vietnam to other countries, including flights from HCM City to Bangkok, Singapore and Guang Xi to serve Vietnamese people going abroad during the Tet holiday.

While airfares are being lowered, railway ticket prices have increased by 10% on average.

(Source: Tien phong & VNE)