HCMC – The Ministry of Transport has written to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) and local airlines, asking them to cope with rising flight delays and cancellations.
According to the ministry, since early this year, the Covid-19 pandemic has been brought under control, the travel demand has surged and air transport has been gradually resumed, the local media reported.
As for domestic flights, the number of passengers and the volume of cargo in the first half of the year increased sharply over the same period last year.
In specifics, there were 40.7 million passengers, surging 56.8% year-on-year. The total number included 1.8 million international passengers and 38.9 million domestic passengers, soaring 904.6% and 52.6% over the year-ago period, respectively.
Local airlines carried 20.1 million passengers, up 56.1% year-on-year, which is a positive result of the aviation sector.
However, the number of delayed or canceled flights increased, sparking concern among air passengers and damaging the prestige of air carriers.
Earlier, CAAV had informed that from May 19 to June 18, Vietnamese airlines operated over 30,800 flights, skyrocketing 528.7% year-on-year and 18% month-on-month.
Of the total, more than 25,200 flights departed as scheduled, down 9.4% over the previous month.
The number of delayed flights amounted to some 5,600, accounting for 18.2% of the total flights and rising 15.9% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, 65 flights were canceled in the period, up 4.8 percentage points.
According to CAAV, the main cause for the delay of flights is the late return of flights.
To deal with the flight delays and cancellations, especially during the summer holiday, the Ministry of Transport asked CAAV to enhance the inspection and supervision of airlines to promptly come up with solutions.
In addition, airlines must comply with regulations on aviation safety and security and fulfill their obligations to passengers in case of flight delays and cancellations.
