Local airlines have spent billions of VND on compensation for delayed or cancelled flights since the flight delay compensation regulations took effect five months ago.
Passengers of Jetstar Pacific Airlines waiting for a late flight at Tan Son Nhat Airport in February.
In the last five months, Vietnam Airlines paid VND6.2bn (USD282,000) and Vietjet Air paid VND3.8bn for delayed and cancelled flights.
According to the Vietnam Civil Aviation Authority, the local airlines suffered a 20 percent delay and cancellation rate.
Pham Vu Cuong, director of Tan Son Nhat Airport, said 90 percent of the delays were because of the late arrivals of previous flights, and only 5 percent were caused by technical problems. The remainder were due to late arriving passengers.
The director of a low-cost flight operator, who wanted to remain anonymous claimed, "Runways are being expanded, more planes are being bought but airport infrastructure remains weak and isn’t capable of meeting demand. It's hard to fix the late arrivals problem. We’re scheduling more flights during the night to avoid rush hours."
Vietjet Air representatives said they are working with the airport ground services providers to improve the problem but wanted to pay less in compensation. Meanwhile Vietnam Airlines is using more online software and technology to reduce waiting times for customers.
Flights that take off 15 minutes later than scheduled are considered delayed, while a cancellation occurs when flight schedules still exist in the system 24 hours before take-off, but the airline does not operate the flight.
On domestic routes, each delayed passenger now receives VND300,000 if the flight is longer than 500km, and VND400,000 flights of more than 1,000km. Compensation on international routes will remain at USD25 for any flight less than 1,000km, USD50 for 1,000km and more and USD150 for flights of 5,000km or more.
Airliners may not have to pay compensation if flights are delayed or cancelled because of weather, aviation security, government order or if passengers are informed of the delay 24 hours prior to take-off.
