VietNamNet Bridge – Road transportation would certainly scramble with hydrofoil for passengers once the highways have been put through for traffic.

All hydrofoils on HCM City - Vung Tau waterway suspended

On January 2, 2014, thousands of transport firms and people in the east of the southern region leaped for joy when the HCM City – Long Thanh highway, a component of the HCM City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay, opened for traffic.

However, the owners of hydrofoils running on the HCM City – Vung Tau route, looked surly on that day, because they realized that their golden days are over, and that they need to change their investment policy to survive.

Hydrofoil becomes less competitive

Dr. Nguyen Huu Nguyen from the Southern Economics Research Center noted that the end of the “hydrofoil era” is inevitable. It is clear that the time to travel by road has been shortened with the existence of the highways, thus making hydrofoils less competitive if comparing with other means of transport.

In the past, Le Trung Toan and his family members in district 1, HCM City, regularly chose hydrofoils when they wanted to go to Vung Tau City for sunbathing.

However, they have changed their itinerary. In the last trips, Toan and his five other member families decided to go by road, a wiser method which allowed them to save a big sum of money.

Le Huy Thao, Chair of Dong Song Xanh, the biggest hydrofoil company that provides the trips on the HCM City – Vung Tau route, admitted that the number of passengers traveling with his hydrofoils has begun decreasing.

Thao said in the past, people preferred traveling to Vung Tau City on hydrofoils, because it took only one hour and 20 minutes to reach there with hydrofoils, while it took three hours to get there by coach.

However, as the highway has become operational, the time needed to reach there has been shortened to one hour and 30 minutes. A lot of people would travel by road, because they have to pay VND100,000 per coach ticket instead of VND200,000 per hydrofoil ticket.

Heavier investments to be made to attract more passengers

Though admitting the disadvantages, the hydrofoil owners still affirmed that the hydrofoil era has not come to an end yet, saying that a lot of passengers still prefer waterways to road.

Nguyen noted that hydrofoil owners have to urgently upgrade their fleets and service quality, or they would be eliminated in the near future.

Agreeing with Nguyen, Thao of Dong Song Xanh said he was aware of the problem three years ago, when he began making heavier investment to get adapted to the new circumstances.

Thao said the only way for hydrofoils to compete with road transport means is to prove that hydrofoil is a high end means of transport which is in no way inferior to air carriers. And in order to do that, the ship owners have only one choice – serving passengers with new hydrofoils, while keeping the ticket prices unchanged.

“Since we had three years to prepare for the new circumstances and save money, we can replace three hydrofoils with brand new ones, scheduled for April 2014,” Thao said, adding that 100 percent of the hydrofoils would be brand new by 2015.

SGTT