HÀ NỘI — Cheap flight tickets for the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday are almost sold out, especially for the HCM City to Hà Nội route.

More than one month before the holiday, Văn Hiếu from the northen province of Quảng Ninh, a worker at the Tân Thuận Industrial Zone in HCM City, told zing.vn online newspaper that he struggled to buy a ticket home.

According to him, during the previous years, he had to book flight tickets two months in advance to travel to Hà Nội at an affordable cost. However, this year, cheap flight tickets are not available. Meanwhile, ticket prices of flights in the days ahead of the Tết holiday, February 9 to 12 (December 24 to 27 in the Lunar calendar), are rising, even among the budget carriers.

“Flight tickets at the end of the lunar year are around VNĐ3 million (US$130). Budget carriers offer slightly cheaper prices with limited luggage. If I buy extra check-in luggage, the cost is similar to that of other airlines,” he said.  

The recent survey by zing.vn on domestic airlines’ online booking system showed that almost all cheap flight tickets during the Tết holiday are sold out, even for the business class.

Vietnam Airlines, for example, sells tickets from VNĐ3.6 million ($158) for the economy class and VNĐ6.6 million ($290) for the business class on the HCM City – Hà Nội route on February 7 (December 22 in the Lunar calendar). Flights on the following days are fully booked.

On the same route, all promotional tickets of Vietjet Air till February 1 (December 16 in the Lunar calendar) are sold out. The cheapest ticket available is at VNĐ1.4 million ($62) for the economy class.

Meanwhie, for the converse route, from Hà Nội to HCM City, ticket prices are from VNĐ968,000 ($43)/ticket/way for Vietnam Airlines, VNĐ399,000 ($17.5)/ticket/way for Vietjet Air and VNĐ500,000 ($22)/ticket/way for Jetstar Pacific.

According to the Việt Nam Aviation Administration (VAA), domestic airlines strictly obey the government’s regulation on domestic air fare management. There is no case of exceeding the ceiling price of VNĐ3.683 million ($162)/ticket/way.  

MoT to tighten traffic management

In another development, Prime Minister, Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, on Thursday, signed a directive on management and administration strength to stabilise market prices and ensure social order and safety during the Tết holiday.

The Ministry of Transport will collaborate with other government agencies to tighten traffic safety and fully respond to people’s travel demands. Also, the ministry is directed to strictly manage transport fares, improve traffic congestion and accelerate favourable conditions to operate rescue operations, when in need. — VNS