A representative of World Transportation Services Joint Stock Company (WorldTrans) said that currently, the price of flight tickets to and from Vietnam has increased by 20-35% compared to the time before the epidemic due to increased travel demand and the impact of fuel prices. According to him, European tours and routes such as the UK, Germany, and Australia are popular with customers at this time.
“Currently, the ticket price from Ho Chi Minh City to Korea is from 9 to 13 million VND/ticket; The route between Ho Chi Minh City and Europe has an average price of 18 million to 27 million dong/ticket, and Ho Chi Minh City – the US has about 41 to 51 million dong/ticket,” he said.
Along with that, the airfare listed on the website of Vietravel Airlines also shows that flight tickets are increasing day by day, for example, the route from Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore on June 30 is priced at 2.4 million VND/ticket and continued to increase gradually to more than 4 million VND/ticket on July 8. Similarly, the Ho Chi Minh City – Netherlands route at the beginning of July only cost more than 20 million VND/ticket, but by the end of the month, it had doubled to about 42 million VND/ticket.
Ms. Tran Mai Quyen, from Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City, said she was hesitant about her travel plan to Korea in early July. “When I heard that Korea officially re-issued tourist visas for returning tourists, I was very happy because I had been waiting for this trip for a long time. However, when I look at the airfare, I’m really shocked because the ticket price is much higher than before,” Quyen said.
“A friend of mine wanted to travel to Bali (Indonesia) but after looking at the ticket price also decided to cancel the trip because at the same time in 2019 the flight ticket cost only about 4 million VND/ticket, but now the price for this route are more than 11 million VND/ticket”, added Ms. Quyen.
According to statistics of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, the number of international visitors in May reached approximately 650,000, an increase of 45.87% compared to April.
In which, transportation of Vietnamese airlines reached 254.2 thousand passengers, an increase of 58.2% compared to April and transportation of foreign airlines reached 395.6 thousand passengers, an increase of 38.8% compared to May 4. Generally in the first 5 months of 2022, international flights have 590.9 thousand passengers, an increase of 904.2 % compared to the first 5 months of 2021.
On the other hand, for airlines, fuel is the biggest operating cost, accounting for between 30% and 60% of the average cost in a year.
Due to measurements, since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine occurred at the end of February, it has caused fuel prices in the world to increase, especially the price of Jet A1 fuel has increased and this is also the main reason for the increase in airfares.
Last April, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Transport to approve the policy of adjusting the maximum price of domestic passenger transport services. This Department proposes to adjust the service price bracket ceiling to the level prescribed in 2014 (an average increase of 3.75% compared to the current regulated price bracket).
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, if the average fuel price in 2022 remains at 130 USD/barrel, the transportation costs of airlines will also increase by about 15,000 billion VND.
Representatives of airlines also raised the difficulties of the units in the face of increased fuel prices in April. For example, if the price of jet fuel remains at 130 USD/barrel for the whole year of 2022, Bamboo Airways’ additional fuel costs will increase by about 3,200 billion VND, with Vietnam Airlines at VND5,700 billion, Vietjet at VND5,200 billion and Vietravel Airlines at VND310 billion.
@ Saigon Times
