VietNamNet – A recent survey showed that more and more Vietnamese people prefer travelling by air than by rail.

As the average income of Vietnamese people increases, air travel has become the favourite choice of many passengers.

In the first five months of the year, local airlines served 3.07mil passengers, up 17% over the same period of last year.

Though remaining unpopular to the majority of Vietnamese people, travelling by sea has become the choice of 1mil passengers in the last five months, up by 8% over the 2005’s same period. Meanwhile, the number of passengers travelling by waterways increased only slightly at 3.3% with 70mil passengers served in the five months.

Inland travel remains the biggest choice of Vietnamese people, serving 458mil passengers in five months, up by 8.9% over the same period of the last year.

However, the number of passengers choosing rail for their travels has been decreasing. Rail transport only received 4.64mil passengers, down 9.3% over the same period of 2005.

Buses are the biggest rival of rail, with passengers taking buses when they want to travel on short distance routes.

In addition, the shortened gap between the airfares and rail ticket prices has also been cited as the important reason for the lower number of rail passengers. The ticket price for TN7 train, running on Hanoi – HCM City route is VND900,000, and the rate for SE3 train on Hanoi – HCM City route is VND978,000. Meanwhile, the airfare is just VND1.5mil for Hanoi – HCM City flight, and it may be VND1mil at promotional seasons.

Nhat Vy