Popular airfares skyrocket as Tet approaches

After the government approved a seven-day Lunar New Year holiday break from Feb. 8 to 14, 2024, Do Manh in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh District started looking for air tickets to return to Hanoi for family reunions.

He plans to fly on Feb. 7, three day before the Lunar New Year, and return to HCMC eight days later.

Manh was shocked by the skyrocketing airfares as the cost for round-trip HCMC-Hanoi tickets on Vietnam Airlines‘ website was VND14 million (US$576) for two.

Bamboo Airways is offering similar prices, including night flights, while Vietjet Air’s round-trip ticket prices for the HCMC-Hanoi route are VND6 million per person, excluding checked baggage.

Because ticket prices have doubled compared to normal rates, Manh is now planning to return to his hometown after the Tet holiday instead.

For the festival period, tickets on routes from HCMC to the central region are also nearly sold out.

On Vietnam Airlines’ website, one-way regular tickets for the HCMC-Thanh Hoa route on the days leading up to Tet are sold out, with only business class tickets left for VND5.9 million per person.

The HCMC-Vinh route on Feb. 7-8 has a total of 13 flights, half of which only have business class tickets left, while economy tickets are already sold out.

On Vietjet Air’s website, economy class tickets on routes from HCMC to Thanh Hoa and Vinh are already sold out.

During Vietnam’s peak Tet travel season, domestic airlines are expected to supply 5.5 million seats on domestic routes, an increase of 4% compared to last year and approximately 2.1 million seats on international routes, an increase of 36%.

Vietnam Airlines has increased the frequency of flights connecting Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City with tourist destinations such as Hai Phong, Vinh, Thanh Hoa, Hue, Quy Nhon, Quang Nam, Da Lat, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc.

A representative of Vietnam Airlines said air tickets from HCMC to Thanh Hoa and Vinh had sold out early due to increasing travel demand.

Tet often sees millions of migrant workers from major cities and industrial hubs return to their hometowns for family reunions, as well as holiday-goers flocking to tourist hotspots.

Due to skyrocketing airfares on some domestic routes, many Vietnamese tourists travel abroad during national holidays.

Vietnamese are among the Southeast Asian communities who prefer holidaying abroad the most, according to GrabAds’s latest SEA Travel Insights 2023 report.

In the first nine months of this year, the number of Vietnamese tourists traveling abroad reached more than 3.8 million, up 2.5 times year-on-year.