Join forces to open new routes

The challenges

The expansion of Phu Bai International Airport from 1.5 to 5 million passengers/year creates an opportunity for Hue to attract more passengers who are tourists than those who travel for official business or to visit relatives. What to do to "fill" the capacity of 5 million passengers is being actively implemented by Thua Thien Hue and the direct operating unit. However, in reality, many challenges have been pointed out.

The first thing that has been discussed over and over again in recent times is the attraction of the destination. As analyzed, the target audience of Phu Bai International Airport is tourists. However, even if there are more flights, new routes, modern facilities... if the destination has nothing new and is not attractive enough, it will be difficult to achieve the set goals. Mr. Nguyen Duc Tuan, Branch Manager, Vietnam Airlines Branch Office in Hue, has emphasized many times that the destination and the attraction of tourism in the Ancient Capital must be better with many new, quality and different products. That is the premise for increasing flights or opening routes.

For opening new routes, especially international routes. Besides Southeast Asia, markets such as Northeast Asia, further Europe, America are currently requiring very strict visas. For example, Korea is very strict in visa examination. Incidents of many tourists staying illegally to work have led to tighter policies on visa application procedures, with a failure rate of up to 50%. Important documents required to apply for a visa to Korea are labor contracts, social insurance books... Tourists without a registered residence in big cities need to prove their financial resources through a savings book of at least 100 million VND.

When opening a new flight route, if visas are difficult to obtain, it will greatly affect the maintenance of long-term flights, especially in developing tour routes. A business gave an example: a group deposited 25 seats and applied for visas for 25 guests, but often had results close to the date. If half of the tickets were rejected, the tour budget would be significantly increased. In addition, if the guest's visa was rejected, the airline would only support a portion of the money, if the results were not returned, they would be fined 100% of the ticket price.

Another big challenge is the initial legal procedures when opening a new flight route. This issue will be more convenient when there is the participation of State agencies. However, as Mr. Tran Xuan Nam, Director of Restour LLC shared, the business side and the Provincial Travel Association have proposed to airlines to open charter flights to and from Malaysia, but it is not easy because the initial licensing procedures are difficult. Meanwhile, maintaining the old flight route will be safer for businesses.

In October 2022, the Provincial Tourism Association and a number of businesses organized a charter flight from Hue to Thailand to Hue. However, up to this point, more than 7 months have passed, and the businesses have not yet received the advance payment of 1.1 billion VND to organize the flight. The delay in payment to businesses not only causes difficulties in capital sources, but businesses will also be reluctant to cooperate in the future.

Multi-sided collaboration

In fact, to anticipate the increase in airport capacity, the provincial People's Committee and the tourism industry have implemented many solutions; including piloting the opening of new routes in the direction of chartering entire flights. Standing Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Binh affirmed that Thua Thien Hue's roadmap is to open charter flights, then move towards forming commercial routes.

To specify solutions to increase the number of tourists to Hue, the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue province has just worked with Vietnam Airlines to promote domestic and international flights to and from Phu Bai International Airport. In the immediate future, Vietnam Airlines will increase flights to and from Hue during the period of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Complex of Hue Monuments and the 20th anniversary of Nha Nhac being recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage. Regarding the opening of new international routes, Vietnam Airlines said it will study and introduce and seek sources of tourists to Hue to be able to open flights.

It is known that in the coming time, the Provincial People's Committee will continue to work with Vietjet Air and Vietravel Airline. Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Binh informed that the province's plan is to prioritize opening more domestic flights connecting tourist destinations from Hue to Nha Trang, Phu Quoc or Van Don (Ha Long); research the direction of sharing with flights from Da Nang. At the same time, open international flights connecting the ancient capitals of the three Indochinese countries: Hue - Luang Prabang - Siemrep (Thailand); Hue - Korea; Hue - Japan ...

Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Director of the Department of Tourism, added that in addition to promoting the opening of flight routes, a solution that the Hue tourism industry and aviation partners are pushing to implement is to increase the promotion of Hue destinations on the media systems of airlines. Along with that, the industry is in the process of working with travel agencies in the province and localities to develop a plan to promote the source of visitors to Hue.

The tourism industry is implementing a plan to organize charter flights to South Korea. Mr. Do Ngoc Co, Chairman of the Travel Association, said that the province should prioritize nearby markets first, especially those in the ASEAN bloc because they do not have to meet strict visa requirements like many distant markets. Recently, Da Nang has opened many new routes to different markets. This is a reference channel for Hue to research and form a roadmap, and promote the opening of more suitable routes.

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