VietNamNet Bridge – The aviation market has not been performing as experts forecasted. Instead of increasing of the number of flights as they did in previous years, many airlines have to reduce the flight frequency.

It is now the high flight season, but airlines all fear that the number of passengers would decrease. Therefore, they have been focusing on restructuring the flight networks.

Many international airlines stop flying to Vietnam

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), 48 international airlines have opened air routes to Vietnam. However, three of them have stopped providing flights in summer, from April 1 to September 30, namely Lot Polish Airlines (Poland) and Jetstar Airways (Australia).

Lot Polish Airlines once created a good impression in Vietnam when opening the direct air route from Warsaw to Hanoi in November 201 with a very big sale promotion program. At that time, passengers only had to pay 199 dollars for one way ticket to Warsaw, 299 dollars to Europe. Especially, passengers could easily succeed to other destinations in Europe on the airlines which were the members of Star Alliance.

However, the airline decided to stop flying to Vietnam in late March 2012.

Meanwhile, Jetstar Airways has also terminated the air route from Australia to Vietnam (Darwin-HCM City – 3 flights a week).

Besides, two other airlines have stopped providing flights to HCM City. These include Qatar Airways, which has stopped four direct flights a week from Doha, and Vladivostok Airlines, which has stopped flying from Far East.

Meanwhile, the national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines has reduced the flight frequency on international air routes. The airline now provides four flights a week instead of five on Hanoi-Frankfurt and Hanoi-Yangon.

Especially, there would be big changes with the flights from HCM City to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, because both Cambodia Angkor Air and Vietnam Airlines would reduce the number of flights. Angkor Air has decided to reduce the number of flights from 14 to 7, while Vietnam Airlines would provide three flights a week instead of 7.

Domestic flights increasing slightly

The sharp air fuel price increase of 10 percent in the first quarter of 2012, plus the sharp fall in the travel demand both have forced airlines to adjust their flight schedules and business plans.

The domestic aviation market is witnessing big adjustments made by domestic air carriers.

Vietnam Airlines is developing 32 domestic air routes, providing 810 flights a week. In the tourism season, the air carrier increases the flight frequency on the routes from HCM City and Hanoi to Cam Ranh by 18 flights a week in total. The number of flights from Hanoi and HCM City to Da Nang City has also increased by 44 percent in comparison with the winter schedule.

However, the airline has cut down the number of flights to other destinations sharply. It now only provides 9 flights a day from HCM City to Phu Quoc Island, while there were 16 flights a day in the past.

The air routes to Phu Quoc Island are now being exploited intensively by the private airline Air Mekong, which uses small aircrafts with less than 100 seats, thus allowing to save costs.

Meanwhile, Jetstar Pacific, in the immediate time, does not intend to increase the flight frequency in comparison with the winter flight schedule. If it gets one new aircraft by June 2012 as planned, it would resume the air route from Hanoi to Da Nang and Nha Trang.

Vo Huy Cuong from CAAV has also affirmed that the travel demand has decrease all over the world. The number of travelers has decreased, while the passengers on business trips now try to make transactions through different channels to minimize traveling.

Source: NLD