All prices reduced
Giving up the idea of taking her child to Nha Trang for the holidays by plane and switching to buying train tickets to save half the travel costs, Ms. Quynh Nga (living in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City) was "startled" when she heard her colleague tell the story of having just booked a plane ticket to Nha Trang on April 29, priced at less than 1.5 million VND/way.
Airline tickets cool down during the holidays
Planning early, Ms. Nga started looking for plane tickets in mid-March. At that time, there were many flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang but the ticket prices were sky-high. The cheapest of Vietjet was nearly 2 million VND/way, round-trip tickets for departure on April 29, return on April 3.5, nearly 4 million VND/person. If buying from Bamboo Airways or Vietnam Airlines , the price would be even higher. The mother and child would have spent about 7.5 million VND on tickets, double the price of a train ticket, so Ms. Quynh Nga decided to buy round-trip sleeper train tickets for more than 3.4 million VND for the two of them.
"When my friend said that the ticket was less than 1.5 million VND, I couldn't believe it. There was no way that the ticket was sold out and buying it close to the date was cheaper than buying it a month ago. Unexpectedly, I checked again and saw that it was true. On April 29, there were only 2 Vietjet flights left on the Ho Chi Minh City - Nha Trang route, 1 flight was more than 1.7 million VND/way but the other flight was only 1.43 million VND/way. Although the flights of Vietnam Airlines were still expensive, more than 1.8 - 1.9 million VND/way, it was still a few hundred thousand VND cheaper than when I bought it," said Ms. Nga.
According to a survey on the online ticket sales site Abay, many flights during the April 30 - May 1 holidays are in a similar situation. About a month ago, the lowest ticket price from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang of Vietjet was over 4.2 million VND/round trip; Bamboo Airways was nearly 5 million VND for the same day flight; while if you buy Vietnam Airlines, the price is over 5.2 million VND, equal to the ticket price during the Lunar New Year season. However, if you book tickets at this time, customers can choose to take Vietjet flights for about 3.6 million VND/round trip; Bamboo Airways has only 1 evening flight left but the price is only over 3.6 million VND/round trip; Vietnam Airlines round trip tickets are about 4.5 million VND, a decrease of about 600,000 - 700,000 VND.
On the "hottest" route from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, if in mid-March, the cheapest flight of Vietravel Airlines on April 28 also increased in price to nearly 2.7 million VND/way, now the ticket price is only less than 1.7 million VND/way. On the same day, there are still many flights with good timings of Vietjet from morning to afternoon, the ticket price is also less than 2 million VND/way, a decrease of about 600,000 VND. Bamboo Airways currently still has many flights with 2.6 million VND/way instead of all over 2.9 million VND/way as in the previous survey. Flights of Vietnam Airlines and Pacific Airlines also recorded ticket discounts but fluctuated lower, at 100,000 - 200,000 VND/way depending on the flight.
Flight tickets for April 30 - May 1 holidays suddenly "cool down"
Are companies "playing tricks" and raising prices?
The fact that airfares are very high 1-2 months before the holiday season but cool down as the holiday approaches raises suspicions that airlines are "playing tricks" by locking down the low-cost fare range to "force" customers to buy high-priced tickets.
However, airline representatives still affirmed that ticket prices are always flexible according to market conditions with a variety of prices and comply with domestic price ceiling regulations. With high demand, most flights to "hot" tourist destinations such as Phu Quoc, Nha Trang, and Da Nang have reached an occupancy rate of over 90% on peak days of April 28-29, so there is no way airlines are intentionally "hoarding tickets".
"Because of the high demand, the cheap ticket prices are sold out very early. If we had any, we would sell them right away. We would get a high price, so why would we hoard them and then sell them at a cheaper price? Not to mention, if people think they're sold out and switch to taking the train or bus, the airline will take the 'show'. No one would be foolish enough to do that! Airfares change every hour, so it's hard to fix them for comparison. It could be the same day, but if you buy in the morning, the price is high, but when you return in the afternoon, it's lower. In the case of holiday ticket prices cooling down on some flights/legs, it could be because customers have changed their needs, returned tickets, so there may or may not be seats, except for some agents who collect tickets and sell them in multiple batches, and now 'release' more" - a representative of an airline explained.
According to the airlines' reports, during the two peak days of April 28-29, the total number of seats offered to the market on flights from Hanoi to key tourist destinations such as Nha Trang, Da Nang, Hue, Da Lat, Phu Quoc, Tuy Hoa, Quy Nhon, Dong Hoi was around 41,000 seats. On April 29, the occupancy rate was particularly high, with the Hanoi - Hue route reaching 100%, Hanoi - Tuy Hoa reaching 93%, Hanoi - Dong Hoi/Quy Nhon both reaching over 96%...
Similarly, on April 29, the number of bookings for flights from Ho Chi Minh City to the above mentioned key tourist destinations was also high, with a total of about 40,000 seats offered. The occupancy rate on routes such as Ho Chi Minh City - Quy Nhon/Phu Quoc/Tuy Hoa were all over 80%.
In the opposite direction, flights to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City also had high booking rates during peak days of May 2-3. Some routes from Phu Quoc, Quy Nhon, Hue, Tuy Hoa to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City all had rates above 80%.
To meet the increasing demand of passengers, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has asked airlines to consider increasing flights on routes from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to destinations with high tourism demand such as Phu Quoc, Tuy Hoa, Binh Dinh, Cam Ranh, Con Dao... especially on April 28-29 and May 2-3.
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