Many early flights 'sold out' for Lunar New Year 2026

Prices doubled, tickets sold out 2.5 months before Tet

Mr. Tran Van Chien (from Nghe An ward, currently living and working in Ho Chi Minh City) shared: For more than a month now, he has been "restless" because of buying plane tickets to go home to celebrate Tet with his whole family.

“Last summer, I planned to take my wife and children to visit my grandparents, but the plan had to change due to an unexpected schedule. The whole family agreed to save the trip to their hometown for Tet. Therefore, I proactively bought tickets early in the hope of getting a good price and a reasonable time. But in reality, the prices were both expensive and scarce. Until now, I have not been able to buy tickets because I have not yet chosen a ticket that suits my family's needs.” Mr. Chien expressed.

Many people find it difficult to buy plane tickets for Tet 2026 because of high prices and shortages. (Illustration photo)

Mr. Chien's family of 5 people is expected to return to their hometown from February 10-15, 2026 (ie December 23-27 of the lunar calendar). However, when checking the ticketing systems of many airlines, he found that all economy tickets were sold out, only business class tickets remained with a price of more than 6 million VND/ticket. It turns out that Mr. Chien's family will spend about 60 million VND on tickets for the entire trip in and out during Tet.

Similarly, Ms. Thu Nga also "struggled" to find plane tickets for the flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Vinh (Nghe An) and vice versa for the Tet holidays. " I wanted to fly to Vinh on the 25th of December and fly to Ho Chi Minh City on the 6th of Tet. But when I searched on many airlines' systems, there were no tickets left, not to mention the prices were much higher than usual.

After much deliberation and searching, I had to change my flight schedule: returning home on December 22 at a price of 3,750,000 VND/ticket/way and flying back to Ho Chi Minh City on the 5th day of Tet at a price of 4 million VND/ticket. If it were a normal day, I would only have to pay about 1.5 - 2 million VND/ticket. So, even though I had proactively bought the ticket very early, I was still late, so my plan to return home for Tet was not as planned ," said Ms. Nga.

According to a survey on December 5, Vietnam Airlines has 3 direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Vinh on February 12, 2026 (December 24), but all of them are sold out of economy class tickets, with only business class tickets priced at over VND 6.1 million/ticket/way. Meanwhile, 6 connecting flights to Hanoi and then back to Vinh still have economy class tickets available, but the prices are all over VND 5 million/ticket, while the travel time is 5-9 hours instead of nearly 2 hours of direct flight.

Similarly, for Vietjet Air, on February 11, 2026 (December 23), the airline has 9 direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Vinh, but many flights have sold out of economy tickets. Ticket prices are currently hovering around 3 million VND, double the normal price.

Meanwhile, the flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi on February 12-15, 2026 (ie December 24-27) still has empty seats but the price is not cheap, the lowest is about 3.71 million VND/ticket/way.

Airlines such as Bamboo Airways, Vietnam Airlines and Vietravel Airlines also have the highest prices at over 3.85 million VND/ticket/way. "Newcomer" Sun PhuQuoc Airways joins the market with 3 flights, also with ticket prices over 3.8 million VND/ticket/way.

On the Ho Chi Minh City - Thanh Hoa route on February 12, there are only 2 flights of Vietjet Air with the lowest price of 3.75 million VND. There is no information about other airlines. On the same route from February 13-15, there are only 2-3 flights of Vietjet with the same price. On February 14, there is 1 more flight of Vietnam Airlines but only business class tickets are available, with a price of more than 6 million VND.

On the Ho Chi Minh City - Hai Phong route, there are still many tickets and flights, but the ticket prices are not cheap. Specifically, Vietjet Air's one-way ticket price starts from 3.75 million VND; Vietnam Airlines' economy class ticket price is about 4.4 million VND. However, there is only 1 economy class flight per day, the rest are business class with the price of 6.88 million VND/ticket/way.

Bamboo Airways "sold out" of flight tickets for Vinh - Ho Chi Minh City flight on the 6th day of Tet 2026. (Screenshot)

High demand, prices unlikely to fall until Tet

According to airline representatives, the high price of Tet tickets is a special law of supply and demand, not only because of the sharp increase in the number of passengers but also because of the "head imbalance", that is, the difference between the demand for departure and return flights.

Before Tet, flights from Ho Chi Minh City to the North and Central regions were often full, while the return flights had many empty seats. After Tet, the situation reversed when the number of people returning to Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces increased dramatically. This made it difficult to balance ticket prices, especially for high-frequency trunk routes.

A representative of Vietnam Airlines said that the ticket sales situation for Tet 2026 is recording positive signs, with the number of early bookings increasing significantly compared to the same period in previous years. Many passengers have proactively planned their travel and purchased tickets early to choose the right flight, time and price, instead of waiting until close to Tet as is the traditional habit.

In addition, Vietnam Airlines also noted that the trend of traveling during Tet this year has increased more strongly than in previous years. Many families and groups of young people took advantage of the 9-day holiday to travel, explore domestic destinations such as Da Nang, Phu Quoc, Quy Nhon, Hue... or to relax abroad.

With such high demand, many predict that airfares for Tet 2026 will be difficult to decrease.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/nhieu-chang-som-chay-ve-may-bay-tet-nguyen-dan-2026-5067085.html