VietNamNet Bridge – Booking agents have reported that the number of passengers booking tickets for the flights from Japan to Vietnam has increased sharply. Vietnamese people are trying to return to Vietnam to avoid the disasters.

 
The owner of Vietnam Airlines booking agency on Tran Hung Dao street, in Hanoi, said that “the number of passengers who booked tickets for the flights from Osaka to Vietnam increased sharply on March 16.”

 

“We issued a lot of tickets for the flights on the air route. Some other air routes of Vietnam Airlines, including the ones from Tokyo, Nagoya and Fukuoka to Vietnam have also witnessed the same situation. Vietnamese people in Japan are trying to book the soonest possible flights to Vietnam,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, Vietnam Airlines has announced the 50 percent reduction of the airfare for Vietnamese passengers flying from Japan to Vietnam.

 

The preferential airfare of 430 dollars will be applied to the Vietnamese passengers who fly from Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka to Hanoi or HCM City on the days from March 16 to March 31, 2011.

Other bookings agents in Hanoi also told VnExpress that “more and more Vietnamese people have come to book tickets for their relatives in Japan to take flights to Vietnam.”

 

“Some flights to Vietnam have been full of passengers. Air tickets until March 20 have run out for some air routes,” the owner of a booking agent said.

 

The national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines has reported that the number of passengers has increased sharply. It has announced the plan to increase the loading capacity for the flights from Tokyo to Hanoi by using big aircrafts in the period from March 16 to March 20. Boeing 777 (309-324 seats) will be used instead of A330 with 282 seats.

 

Vietnam Airlines reported that all the four offices and its staff in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka keep normal operation. However, since many companies and tourism agents in Tokyo have closed the doors and communication is interrupted, the airlines has suggested passengers to book tickets right in Vietnam for their relatives in Japan so as to avoid the overloading for the above said offices.

 

Vietnam Airlines now has eight air routes from Hanoi/HCM City to four big Japanese cities Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka, providing 46 flights a week.

 

Meanwhile, representatives of a group of students in Tokyo, who contacted VietNamNet, said that “Vietnam Airlines, through the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan, informed the group if they can gather 300 students who want to fly to Vietnam, the air carrier will send aircraft to Japan to pick them up.”

 

C. V