Grand celebrations, floods cause scarcity of air tickets

HCMC - Air tickets for flights between HCMC and Hanoi have become scarce as demand for air travel on this route is rising because of the ongoing 1,000th birthday festival of Thang Long-Hanoi and flooding impacts in central Vietnam. Vietnam Airlines on Thursday started to increase flight frequencies between the two biggest cities of Vietnam, especially those from HCMC to Hanoi, where the grand celebrations are taking place until October 10. For this reason, the airline adds 13 flights to this route until Monday. The national flag carrier operated two more flights from HCMC to Hanoi on Thursday, five on Friday, one on each of Saturday and Sunday, and four more services from Hanoi to HCMC on October 11. Besides the millennial celebrations, Vietnam Airlines has decided to increase frequencies because flooding in certain parts of central Vietnam has impacted travel by road and rail in the region, pushing the demand for air travel higher. Vietnam Airlines said that with the extra services, it operated 32 daily flights on average on the HCMC-Hanoi route until Monday and offered 8,860 seats a day to the market. Jetstar Pacific will not increase flight frequencies on the HCMC-Hanoi route as this low-cost carrier cannot arrange its aircraft reasonably on the fact that the demand is much higher for air travel from HCMC to Hanoi than the opposite direction on the same days. A Jetstar Pacific executive told the Daily on the phone on Thursday that it had sold out all the air tickets for its flights from HCMC to Hanoi until October 9, and the tickets for the services on October 10 are running out. Almost all the tickets for the flights on the opposite direction on Monday and Tuesday have been booked. Jetstar Pacific operates 10 flights between HCMC and the capital city, using Airbus A320s with 180 seats and Boeing 737-400s with 168 seats. The country’s second largest airline now has one Airbus and five Boeing aircraft. Air Mekong cannot give much help in the air ticket shortage as the start-up airline will launch services this Saturday, with around two flights for the HCMC-Hanoi route using Bombardier CRJ-900s configured with 90 Deluxe and Economy-class seats. The private airline is expected to receive an air operator certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam in Phu Quoc Airport in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang on Friday, and announce its maiden services on Saturday. Initially, Air Mekong will conduct 26 daily flights by four Bombardier CRJ-900s before increasing frequencies to 34 daily services flights on 10 domestic air routes to the airports in HCMC, Hanoi, Phu Quoc, Con Dao, Pleiku, Buon Ma Thuot and Dalat, and the central city of Danang. * Vietnam Aircraft Leasing Join Stock Co. (VALC) on Thursday took delivery of a fourth ATR72-500 plane in France’s city of Toulouse as part of a batch of five aircraft of this type the local company already ordered from manufacturer ATR. VALC will get the fifth ATR72-500 in December this year in the US$100 million-plus deal between the company and French Avion de Transport Regional (ATR). All the aircraft will be leased to Vietnam Airlines. Tran Long, general director of VALC, said the company was completing procedures to receive 10 Airbus A321-200s from the European aircraft maker in 2012 and 2013. Again, these planes will be put into service by Vietnam Airlines.