National Assembly Delegate: It is unacceptable to be informed of a 'delay' upon arriving at the airport.

Delegate Pham Van Hoa ( Dong Thap ) expressed concern about the issue of compensation for damages to airline passengers. He said that the draft clearly states the rights and obligations of the port and the rights and obligations of the airline, but the rights and obligations of the customer are very general.

Delegate Pham Van Hoa. Photo: Hoang Ha

"Talking about compensation for damages, not about how or what compensation. We all fly and have experienced delays, even leaders. There were delays of several hours...", Mr. Hoa cited.

He said that when flights are delayed, airlines say it's due to flight operations. "You operate the flight, you delay the flight, that's unacceptable. Delays due to natural disasters or epidemics are acceptable. Delays due to general aircraft operations are unreasonable."

The delegate cited an example: flying to Can Tho at 4pm and buying a ticket, then later the airline announced an apology due to the flight being delayed until 5pm, which is understandable, but if you arrive at the airport and then announce it, it is unacceptable.

"Delayed for several hours, some passengers were able to go to the VIP room to rest, while others were left sitting around for several hours...", Mr. Hoa said.

Mr. Hoa proposed that there must be clear and specific regulations on compensation for flight delays. If it is not regulated by law, it must be regulated in a Government decree.

Discipline in aviation is not serious yet

Delegate Le Huu Tri (Khanh Hoa) said that after traveling to many countries and returning to Vietnam, he found that the airports are small, the runways are short, the transport planes are not large, and the infrastructure of many terminals is "rickety" but they are all international airports. According to him, the terminal standards must be raised.

"Everywhere is an international airport, even if it only receives one flight a day, it is an international airport... We have to raise the standards to what is international and what is domestic. When going abroad, we see that their international airports are different, but ours is not good, the services are not good," Mr. Tri analyzed.

He believes that the law must overcome the discipline of aviation, because Vietnamese airlines have many delays. This shows that the discipline in Vietnamese aviation is not serious. This causes a lot of trouble and waste for society and passengers when they have to spend high costs, a lot of time, and even cause psychological instability. Besides, he recognizes that many passengers are not serious in their travel...

"Foreigners coming to Vietnam, looking at airline schedules, will judge that Vietnamese culture is not serious about punctuality. Therefore, there needs to be a regulation requiring participants to strictly follow it. If you fly without discipline, how can you be disciplined?", the delegate affirmed.

Delegate Nguyen Thanh Cam (Dong Thap) also proposed adding a principle directly related to protecting the interests of customers. According to her, for many customers using Vietnamese aviation services, airfares are not cheap, there are periods when ticket prices are quite high. However, there are still cancellations and delays. After that, customers board the plane and only receive a single apology from the captain, "which we find unsatisfactory".

Delegate Nguyen Thanh Cam. Photo: Hoang Ha

"If it is due to weather or objective conditions, we completely sympathize and agree. However, if it is due to subjectivity in management, operation, or flight exploitation, there must be a satisfactory compensation mechanism," said Ms. Cam.

The female delegate suggested studying the mechanism for customers whose rights are violated, flights are delayed, postponed, or canceled, such as paying extra points to the loyalty card.

"Being late for a meeting is a huge loss. Going to a transaction or doing business that is delayed, canceled for several hours or moved from one day to another greatly affects economic development. Therefore, we propose that the rights of customers and compensation for customers need to be more specific in this draft law," Ms. Cam said.

In response to concerns from many delegates, at the Cao Bang group, Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh said that the construction of Long Thanh airport aims to avoid delays and attract international passengers.

Regarding the reason, according to the Minister, the airport has not yet met international standards. To meet international standards, there must be a runway and a landing runway, with a minimum distance of 1,350 m. But this distance is only available at Long Thanh airport. If Tan Son Nhat airport is built, it will have to be cleared to Cong Hoa intersection and will require a huge investment of resources.

Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh. Photo: Hoang Ha

“Airlines also shared that each flight is delayed on average 15 minutes to 1 hour, consuming a lot of fuel in the air. International arrivals, for example, small airports that have not met 4E and 4F standards, do not have large aircraft arriving, so airport operations are inefficient,” the Minister shared.

He also cited that Vietnamese airlines fly to China on 18 routes, but in contrast, China only flies to Vietnam on 3 routes because only 3 airports meet the standards.

Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/national-congress-representative-khong-the-chap-nhan-khi-den-san-bay-moi-thong-bao-delay-2455200.html