On Wednesday, a delegation from the Ministry of Transport and the National Traffic Safety Committee inspected the operations of Tan Son Nhat International Airport. 

Passengers at Tan Son Nhat International Airport

According to Dang Tuan Tu, director of the airport, the peak time for the airport is the fortnight leading up to the Lunar New Year. There are around 805-820 flights per day from and to the airport on average.

The highest peak days around Tet is likely to be Saturday, February 2, before the Lunar New Year which is on February 5, with 900 flights and February 10, the sixth day into the Lunar New Year with 860 flights. Vietnam Airlines and VietJet are among carriers which increase flights the most. 

Tu added that over recent days, many flights were behind schedule or even cancelled, noting that this had a knock-on effect.

Tu asked airlines to try to ensure they met their flight schedules.

A representative from VietJet admitted the situation in which some flights of the carrier were delayed over the recent days. The firm has added more aeroplanes to meet the higher travel demand.

According to Khuat Viet Hung, vice chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, Tan Son Nhat’s designed capacity is to serve 25 million passengers per year, however, to date, the figure has reached 38.5 million. So, it is impossible to avoid overload.