Dinh La Thang, secretary of HCMC’s Party Committee, has suggested opening check-in counters outside Tan Son Nhat International Airport as a measure to ease overload inside the airport and reduce congestion on the roads around the airport area during the Lunar New Year holiday (Tet).

Buses can be used to transport passengers to Tan Son Nhat for boarding after they check in at a designated venue outside the airport, Thang said during his call on leaders and employees at the airport on Sunday, or less than two weeks ahead of the longest holiday in the country.

Dang Tuan Tu, director of Tan Son Nhat, said the airport handled 32 million passengers last year, seven million passengers higher than the designed capacity of the airport.

Local airlines have registered to operate an additional 1,065 flights during the upcoming Tet, up 38 flights a day on average over normal days. They will conduct a total of 775 services a day on the peak period of the holiday, aggravating overload at the airport.

Tu said Tan Son Nhat and local airlines have made preparations to service passengers during Tet, which starts on January 28. A new flight management method has been adopted to help reduce congestion in the sky around the airport.   

Thang proposed keeping taxi cabs from the airport area as another measure to solve congestion in addition to allowing passengers to complete check-in procedures outside the airport before getting on buses to travel there.

Thang said foreign experts could also be hired to help better operate Tan Son Nhat and help increase aircraft movements at the busiest airport in the country.

Thang also asked whether a flood control reservoir has been constructed at Tan Son Nhat or not. The management of the airport responded that land had not been made ready due to complicated procedures.

Thang expressed his disappointment at the slow pace of the project, saying it was not difficult to move on with the reservoir. He urged the project to be undertaken in the dry season to help prevent flooding at the airport in the rainy season.

Thang told relevant agencies to quicken construction of concrete sewers under the roads near Tan Son Nhat to improve rainwater drainage for the airport in the rainy season.

Vietjet, Jetstar Pacific open new int’l routes

Vietnam’s low-cost carrier Jetstar Pacific has commenced new services between Vietnam and China while Vietjet launched a new route to Taiwan.

Vietjet on Sunday launched its HCMC-Taichung route, the fifth route that links Vietnam and Taiwan, to meet increasing demands of leisure and business travelers. It operates flights between the two cities on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays with a flying time of three hours 30 minutes.

Vietjet said passengers can book air tickets for the new route at its website vietjetair.com, call center on 19001886 and ticketing offices nationwide. Payment can be made with debit and credit cards of Visa, MasterCard, JCB, KCP and American Express and ATM cards issued by Vietnam’s banks that have internet banking service.

Located in the west of central Taiwan, Taichung is Taiwan’s third largest city, which is known as a cultural and educational center with multiple heritages and historical sites. With the new route to Taichung, Vietjet now has five routes to Taiwan.

Also on Sunday, Jetstar Pacific started to fly between Vietnam’s two biggest cities, Hanoi and HCMC, and China’s Guangzhou. The airline uses Airbus A320 aircraft for these two routes.  

Jetstar Pacific performs its Hanoi-Guangzhou service on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and flies from HCMC to the third largest city of China on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Jetstar Pacific said it sells low fares for the new services from 11 a.m. till 2 p.m. every day and on Fridays at jetstar.com.

Jetstar Pacific currently operates 37 domestic and international routes including those linking Vietnam and Hong Kong and Taipei.

SGT