Vietnam Airlines will
have 583 more flights to meet rising travel demand of Vietnamese people who
want to get back to their families across the country for celebrating the Lunar
New Year holiday, or Tet, in early February.

The flagship carrier will run the additional flights from
January 18 to February 20 on the 10 major routes having strong air travel
demand, with more than 100,000 seats to be made available.

This is the airline’s second announcement of its domestic
flight frequency increases in just more than one month prior to the nation’s
biggest holiday.

There will be 307 services between HCMC and Hanoi, or around 63,000 seats for the
north-south route in the period, an increase of a staggering 41% compared to
normal days and 8% from the same period of last Tet.

The 129 extra flights for the HCMC-Danang route from the
15th day of the twelfth lunar month to the 18th day of the first lunar month
provide 26,820 seats to the market, up 35% over the same period of last Tet and
24% over normal days.

The SkyTeam member airline said it would serve more flights
at night to ease operation and traffic congestion at airports during the
holiday. A week just before and after the first day of the lunar calendar, it
will operate round the clock to meet any sudden surge in demand.

To keep air tickets from the black market, the airline will
sell seats on the extra flights on the announced days, including December 20,
January 3 and 17, mostly based on a demand-and-supply basis.

The one-way tickets excluding airport and value-added taxes
start from VND1.818 million for economy-class seats and VND3.35 million for
business-class seats for flights from HCMC to Hanoi,
Haiphong and
Vinh. The respective fares are from VND2.272 million and VND3.85 million for
Can Tho-Hanoi services and VND1.181 million and VND2.1 million for flights from
Hanoi to HCMC
and Danang.

The airline called for passengers to book seats on its
flights during the family reunion season at its ticketing offices and certified
agents, whose addresses can be found on www.vietnamairlines.com. They are
advised not to pay any extra fees that are not airport and VAT rates.

Vietnam Airlines also requested passengers to carefully
check their issued tickets and types of seats as well as ask the seller for
receipts. The carrier warned it would impose heavy fines on those agents in
connection with violations such as speculation and charging higher fares and
more fees.

The airline asked holders of confirmed tickets to be present
at airports three hours ahead of departure to complete necessary procedures and
encouraged them to use its web check-in service to avoid having to queue in
long lines at airports during peak hours of air travel within Vietnam.

In November, the airline announced a 44% increase in
frequencies for the HCMC-Danang service and 57% for the HCMC-Hanoi run for Tet
from normal days, with a combined 10,200 seats a day for single directions on
these routes. But these seats have been snapped up.

At last Tet, the airline operated less than 1,000 more
domestic flights on the main domestic routes between Hanoi and HCMC, and HCMC and Danang to
transport passengers home for family celebration before the national holiday
and back to work after that.

Source: SGT