There are still about 3 months left until the Lunar New Year (Tet) 2023 festival break but airlines have already opened the sale of Tet tickets. Many flights on peak occasions have run out of economy-class tickets, only business-class ones are available and all of them are quite expensive.

Passengers are seen at the Da Nang International Airport. Photo: THANH LAN

According to a recently-conducted survey on online ticket selling channels of airlines, in the first stage of opening the sales of Tet tickets for many domestic routes, the ticket price is high and quite high as compared to 2022.

Accordingly, for through reference, Tet tickets 2023 in the peak period from January 12 to 20, 2023, many routes witness higher fares than in 2022 from VND 500,000 to VND 850,000 on one-way flights.

For the busiest flight segment in Viet Nam, between Ho Chi Minh City – Ha Noi, the return ticket price ranges from VND 4.7 million - VND 7.5 million; Ho Chi Minh City - Da Nang route with a round-trip price ranging from VND 4.6 million to VND 5.5 million; Ho Chi Minh City - Vinh from VND 6.1 million to VND 7 million (depending on the airline).

Notably, the route Ha Noi - Ho Chi Minh City and vice versa have been out of tickets for Tet.
Along with that, customers who choose to fly early from 5:30 a.m or late after 11.00 p.m, the lowest round-trip fare (including taxes and fees) will have a discount.

A representative of an airline ticket agent on Ho Xuan Huong Street, Khue My Ward, Ngu Hanh Son District said that, in fact, the ticket price for the Lunar New Year 2023 will increase by 5 - 10% compared to last year, softer ticket classes such as basic and standard economy tickets are scarce.

According to a representative of Vietnam Airlines, this year, due to the influence of global gasoline prices, airfares for the Lunar New Year 2023 have been also greatly affected. Vietnam Airlines Group, comprising of 3 airlines Vietnam Airlines, Pacific Airlines and VASCO, has been selling tickets since August.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Loan, a customer who often hunts for promotional tickets at the end of the year, said that the period from December 25 to December 29 every year, due to increased travel demand, is also the peak flight period for airlines.

Therefore, the fare will generally be higher than before or after. Normally, domestic airlines will have the first round of ticket sales for Tet from August with many flexible and attractive prices. Then there is the October-November period and the last one near Tet.

Of special note, Vietjet is giving away hundreds of thousands of promotional Eco tickets up to 90 per cent off (excluding taxes and fees) in a move to welcome the Lunar New Year 2023. According to Vietjet, passengers only have to apply the promotion code 2023 when booking at www.vietjetair.com or Vietjet Air mobile app to receive attractive offers from November 1 to November 6.

Promotional tickets are applied to all domestic routes from the north and centre to the south with flight period from January 6, 2023 to January 22, 2023 and routes from the south to the north and centre from January 23, 2023 to February 6, 2023.

Passengers also enjoy free payment when booking and paying via Vietjet SkyClub or applying the program "Fly now - Pay later” with easy online check-in in just 3 minutes, providing a flexible financial solution and convenience, Vietjet said.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam said that from January 6, 2023, to February 5, 2023, according to Vietnamese airlines, the number of flights served by airlines will increase by 32 percent to serve the increasing travel demand.

Specifically, during this period, airlines are expected to add 8,079 flights, equivalent to 1.6 million seats, bringing the total number of domestic flights to 33,691 flights or 6.7 million seats.

Thus, airlines add 260 flights per day on average on routes including Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City -Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City -Dong Hoi, Ho Chi Minh City - Vinh, Ho Chi Minh City -Thanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City -Chu Lai, Ho Chi Minh City -Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City -Quy Nhon, Ho Chi Minh City -Hue and vice versa. Currently, airlines have opened ticket sales for Tet on their official websites.

Reporting by THANH LAN – Translating by A.THU