Airports seriously overloaded with Tet flights

VnnNews – Higher demand for Tet travel and higher numbers of flights provided by air carriers means airports are struggling to cope.

At 9.23 am of February 9, hundreds of passengers on the budget airline Jetstar Pacific, who took flight BL316 from HCM City did not receive their luggage after they landed in Hai Phong City. They were first told to wait three hours and then asked to return at 2 pm the same day.

 

Explaining the problem, a representative of the air carrier said that because of too much luggage, some was carried in another flight. He said that this happens very seldom and only ever on Tet days.

 

Later Jetstar Pacific handed over all luggage to the passengers in the afternoon of February 9 and handed out 60,000 dong to cover lunch to every passenger.

 

According to Noi Bai Airport officials, in recent days, the airport has been running at full capacity. As travel demand increases, air carriers rush to provide more flights and check-in and check-out kiosks become overloaded.

 

Quoc Anh, an officer of Noi Bai Airport, said that he witnessed many passengers missing flights just because they were several minutes late due to traffic. Meanwhile, they could not take the next flights because they are all full.

 

“I saw two women from Nam Dinh City crying at the airport because they missed their flights. This means that they will not have the chance to celebrate Tet with their relatives in HCM City,” Anh related.

 

The national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines has announced that it would provide 28,000 more seats on flights for Tet. While welcome news for those still chasing tickets, it has put airports under even more strain.

 

With just a modest number of six aircrafts, Jetstar Pacific has also decided to provide 10 more flights on Tet days to meet the traveling demand which has increased by 30 percent over the previous Tet.

 

Vietnam Airlines has suggested passengers to be present 2.30 hours in advance at the airport to be sure that they can fulfill check-in procedures and do not miss flights.

 

Meanwhile, Jetstar Pacific thinks that it would be better to be present at 3.30 hours before departure time

 

Airlines have warned that the overloading at airports may be even worse after Tet, when a large number of passengers take flights to return to their work.

 

The two airports which have been most overloaded are Tan Son Nhat in HCM City and Noi Bai in Hanoi.

 

VietNamNet/VNE

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