As of January 10, Vietnamese airlines added about 133,000 seats on domestic routes compared to the previous week.
Flights focus on routes from Ho Chi Minh City to the Central provinces during the period from January 22 to February 8, such as: Ho Chi Minh City - Buon Ma Thuot route increased by 26 flights, Ho Chi Minh City - Quy Nhon route increased by 37 flights, Ho Chi Minh City - Thanh Hoa route increased by 32 flights, Ho Chi Minh City - Chu Lai increased by 34 flights...
Despite the addition of a significant number of flights, many routes from Ho Chi Minh City to other localities are quickly filling up during the days close to Tet and in the opposite direction during the period after Tet.
Some routes have continued to have a 100% booking rate such as: Hanoi to Buon Ma Thuot (100%); Ho Chi Minh City to Hue/Pleiku/Tuy Hoa/Quy Nhon/Buon Ma Thuot/Quang Binh/Thanh Hoa/Vinh/Chu Lai/Quy Nhon/Nha Trang/Hue (100%)...
For the main routes such as Ho Chi Minh City - Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi, Hanoi - Da Nang, Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City, the occupancy rate in the period from January 25 to February 2 (ie December 26 to January 5 of the lunar calendar) is increasing rapidly. In particular, on the Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi/Da Nang route, some days near Tet have seen a high rate of over 90%.
The strong increase in demand has caused some flights from Ho Chi Minh City to other provinces to run out of economy class tickets in the days leading up to Tet. On the other hand, due to low demand, although the tickets are very cheap, some flights are only from 0 VND, but few people buy them, so airlines have to operate many empty flights.
According to a survey, on January 22 (ie December 23 of the lunar calendar), flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Vinh, Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa and key routes such as Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi are being listed by airlines at prices of about 3.4-3.9 million VND for basic economy class (including taxes and fees).
On January 25 (the first day of the holiday), flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang, Pleiku, Da Nang, Hue, Vinh, Thanh Hoa... were all sold out of economy class tickets, and on some days there were even no business class tickets left.
On the other hand, when flights had to return to Ho Chi Minh City with empty seats, ticket prices dropped to a much lower level. Accordingly, on January 22, 25 and 27, ticket prices from airports in Buon Ma Thuot, Hue, Thanh Hoa, Pleiku, Dong Hoi, Chu Lai... to Ho Chi Minh City were listed at a low level.
Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air from only 90,000 VND; Vietjet Air offers 0 VND promotional tickets for Hai Phong, Vinh, Hanoi routes; Bamboo Airways and Vietravel Airlines: offer tickets from 25,000 VND on Da Nang, Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City routes. The price including taxes and fees for these routes ranges from 550,000 - 700,000 VND/way.
For flights such as Hanoi - Da Nang, Hanoi - Quy Nhon, Hanoi - Phu Quoc, the round trip price is relatively stable, ranging from 1.5 - 3.7 million VND.
However, on January 25, routes such as Hanoi - Quy Nhon and Hanoi - Phu Quoc were sold out of economy class tickets.
The last day of the holiday falls on February 2, ticket prices from the Northern and Central provinces to Ho Chi Minh City increased sharply, many flights were sold out of economy class tickets such as routes from Buon Ma Thuot, Hue, Nha Trang, Thanh Hoa, Pleiku, Dong Hoi, Vinh, Chu Lai...
After the holiday, on February 8, the two-way ticket price trend still had a clear difference. Routes from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang, Pleiku, Vinh, Hanoi were only from 0 VND, while the return ticket price remained high.
Travel businesses believe that airfares for the 2025 Lunar New Year will remain high, increasing by 10% to 15% compared to the same period of the 2024 Lunar New Year. Flights departing from Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City to famous tourist destinations will cost about 1.7 - 2.6 million VND more than last year.
"In general, tourists still consider the cost of airfare a lot. Therefore, tourists tend to look for products that combine package deals, hunt for promotional packages from airlines or travel businesses, plan early and reserve seats in advance to enjoy good prices or switch to closer locations to save costs," said Mr. Bui Thanh Tu - Marketing Director of BestPrice.
In order to meet the travel needs of people during the Lunar New Year holiday in 2025, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam is working with airlines to research and implement additional flights on routes with high booking rates, especially routes with booking rates of over 90%.
