Are there still Tet holiday flight tickets available or have they sold out?

Nearly two months before the Lunar New Year holiday of the Year of the Snake, many popular flight routes during the peak Tet season are already fully booked. Ticket prices are also no longer cheap. However, some routes still have plenty of cheap air tickets available…

With many routes fully booked, airlines are adding aircraft en masse.

In preparation for the peak Tet holiday season of the Year of the Snake 2025, airlines have been implementing holiday service plans well in advance, including nighttime flight operations.

During this year's peak Tet holiday season, airlines are expected to provide more than 6.9 million seats, a 4% increase compared to the 2024 Lunar New Year (illustrative image).

According to statistics from the Vietnam Civil Aviation Authority, during the peak Tet holiday period (from January 14, 2025 to February 12, 2025), airlines will provide more than 6.9 million seats, averaging 227,000 seats per day, a 4% increase compared to the 2024 Lunar New Year.

Of these, the total number of seats offered on domestic routes is approximately 4.8 million (an average of 160,000 seats per day), an increase of about 3.5% compared to the same period in 2024. The total number of seats offered on international routes reached over 2.1 million (an average of nearly 71,000 seats per day), an increase of 4.6% compared to the same period in 2024.

Regarding plans to add aircraft and increase supply capacity, Vietjet Air plans to add 6 aircraft (owned, dry-leased, and wet-leased); Vietnam Airlines plans to add 5 aircraft (dry-leased and wet-leased).

According to the Vietnam Civil Aviation Authority, by the end of November, the "skewed" nature of air transport during peak Tet holiday periods had become clearly evident.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday (January 25, 2025, or the 26th day of the 12th lunar month), the booking rate on flights from Ho Chi Minh City to northern provinces mostly reached over 50%. Notably, some routes reached over 90%, and some even sold out completely.

Specifically, the flight occupancy rates for the Ho Chi Minh City - Hue route reached 99.31%, Ho Chi Minh City - Pleiku 100%, Ho Chi Minh City - Tuy Hoa 100.24%, Ho Chi Minh City - Quy Nhon 100%, Ho Chi Minh City - Quang Binh 100%, and Ho Chi Minh City - Chu Lai 99.76%.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, booking rates are very low: Hue - Ho Chi Minh City (12.2%), Pleiku - Ho Chi Minh City (12.85%), Tuy Hoa - Ho Chi Minh City (7.73%), Quy Nhon - Ho Chi Minh City (5.66%), Quang Binh - Ho Chi Minh City (15.66%), Chu Lai - Ho Chi Minh City (13.16%).

A similar situation occurs on the days before and after the first holiday. For the middle of the holiday (January 28, 2025, which is the 29th day of the 12th lunar month), passengers still have many suitable options.

Towards the end of the holiday period, especially on the final day (February 2nd, 2025), booking rates showed a significant increase on local flights to Ho Chi Minh City, averaging around 75%.

Some routes have booking rates that have reached or are close to 100%, such as: Pleiku - Ho Chi Minh City, Tuy Hoa - Ho Chi Minh City, Thanh Hoa - Ho Chi Minh City, Quy Nhon - Ho Chi Minh City, Chu Lai - Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Hoi - Ho Chi Minh City... On this day, the booking rate for the return flights is very low, only around 10%.

There are still plenty of cheap tickets available.

A survey conducted by the Transport Newspaper on online ticket sales channels shows that the price of an economy class air ticket on January 21, 2025 (the 22nd day of the 12th lunar month), on the Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi route (the main route with the highest flight frequency and passenger volume), is being offered by Vietnam Airlines at 3.7 million VND/one-way.

If flying Vietjet Air, passengers have to pay around 2.9 - 3 million VND/one-way; Bamboo Airways costs around 3.7 million VND/one-way and Vietravel Airlines around 2.9 million VND/one-way.

On the same day, on the Ho Chi Minh City - Hue and Ho Chi Minh City - Quy Nhon routes, the ticket price was 2.37 million VND/one-way if flying with Vietnam Airlines and 2.4 million VND/one-way if flying with Vietjet Air.

Conversely, tickets are much cheaper. Specifically, for the Hue - Ho Chi Minh City route, Vietnam Airlines tickets range from 1.1 to 1.7 million VND/one way. Vietjet Air offers tickets for around 0.9 to 1 million VND/one way.

On the Quy Nhon - Ho Chi Minh City route, ticket prices are even very cheap. Accordingly, Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air and Vietravel Airlines are selling tickets for around 700,000 VND/one-way, while Bamboo Airways is recording prices of around 600,000 VND/one-way.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday (January 25, 2025), on the Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi route, Vietnam Airlines, Bamboo Airways, and Vietjet offered the same price, approximately 3.6 million VND/one-way. Vietravel Airlines' price was only slightly lower, around 3.4 million VND/one-way.

On February 2nd, 2025 (the last day of the Lunar New Year holiday), for the Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City route, the ticket price for Vietnam Airlines and Bamboo Airways is approximately 3.6 million VND/one-way; Vietjet Air has a price of around 3.6 - 3.7 million VND/one-way. Vietravel Airlines is around 3.7 million VND/one-way.

After this peak period, on February 7th, 2025 (5 days after the end of the holiday), Vietnam Airlines and Bamboo Airways ticket prices remained at 3.6 million VND/one-way; Vietjet Air ranged from 3.1 to 3.7 million VND/one-way, a 16% decrease compared to the previous period. Vietravel Airlines offered tickets in the range of 3.1 to 3.4 million VND/one-way, a decrease of up to 19% compared to the previous period.

Tips for buying cheap tickets

Closely monitoring Tet holiday flight ticket prices, Ms. Minh Hanh (a kindergarten teacher in Ho Chi Minh City) is wondering whether she should book a flight back to Hanoi for Tet or not.

"I browsed several ticket booking channels and saw that even the cheapest flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi cost over 3 million VND. A round-trip ticket on the first day of the Tet holiday, returning to Ho Chi Minh City on the last day, is currently priced at 6.5 - 7 million VND. If I don't buy now, I'm afraid the price will go up even more, or I might not even get a ticket," Ms. Hanh said.

Unlike Ms. Hanh, Mr. Nguyen Manh Dung (a communications employee in Ho Chi Minh City) said that since he knew he had to buy tickets anyway, he bought them early, at the right time when prices were still cheap. Compared to the current prices, he saved nearly 6 million VND on tickets for his family of four.

According to an aviation expert, Mr. Dung's choice was very smart, because every Tet holiday, when demand increases, ticket prices also increase.

However, he also suggested that there are ways to get better prices. The ideal time to book tickets is usually 2-3 months before Tet (Lunar New Year), when airlines first start selling tickets. Prices are usually cheapest during this initial period. Next, avoid booking on peak days such as the 27th-29th of the Lunar New Year (before Tet) and the 4th-6th of the following month (after Tet); choose early morning or late night flights, as prices may be lower.

If passengers don't mind longer travel times, they can also choose airports closer to their destination instead of the main airport, and then travel by other means of transport, which helps reduce costs.

Speaking to Giao Thong Newspaper, a leader of the Vietnam Civil Aviation Authority said that they will continue to monitor demand on domestic routes and promptly direct Vietnamese airlines and airports to increase capacity on routes with high booking rates.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/ve-may-bay-tet-dang-con-hay-het-192241209220014951.htm