Representatives from several airlines in Vietnam met on July 9 to look into the reasons and solutions for the increasing number of delayed and canceled flights.
Passengers waiting on a delayed flight
Delays and cancellations are nothing new, but the number has recently been sharply increasing, mostly with the low-cost carriers. On July 9, representatives from four carriers, Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific, VietJet Air and Vasco, along with other relevant units discussed the problem. The deputy director of Jetstar Pacific, Nguyen Tuan Anh said they only have six planes, so if one needs maintenance their capacity is reduced by one sixth.
Hoang Van Manh, from Vietnam Airlines, said they had to invest in human resources, equipment and back-up planes for many years. Manh pointed out that sometimes delays are unpredictable. He recounted an incident, "When a plane was set to take off, the crew wasn't able to find the luggage of a missing passenger to return it to the airport. When the luggage was found, the passenger arrived," he said.
According to VietJet Air, which has the highest number of delayed flights, during the first six months of the year, they had to cancel 32 flights because of technical issues, which caused delays to 200 flights. Bad weather and passenger errors are other causes. A representative from VietJet Air went on to say that many flights were delayed because the check-in system across the country is not synchronized, refueling and security screening services at airports are also slow.
Security check at Noi Bai Airport
On the other hand, the ground handling services at Tan Son Nhat Airport said that some carriers frequently change planned routes, confusing them. On June 19, VietJet Air mistakenly brought 200 passengers to Cam Ranh instead of Da Lat. Even though the route was changed, not all employees had been informed.
A representative of the Department of Flight Safety Standards, under the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said that since weather forecasts at airports are not always accurate, it added to the number of sudden delays and cancelled flights.
In order to improve the situation, the carriers agreed to increase their back-up planes and staff. Moreover, the turn time of a plane will also be lengthened. The Civil Aviation Authority will inspect the ground handling services and publicise the number of delayed and cancelled flights weekly. "If carriers are unable to improve services, then we may ban them from opening new routes," said Vo Huy Cuong, deputy head of Civil Aviation Authority.
In the first six months of 2014, there were 74,000 flights in Vietnam, out of which about 21% were delayed and just over 3% were cancelled. This rate represents an increase of 5.2% and 0.5% respectively compared to last year.