Vietnam cracks down on tardy airlines, to penalize delay, cancelation

Dinh Viet Thang, head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), said Thursday the average rate of delayed and canceled flights for Vietnamese carriers is 15 percent.

Though not high compared to neighboring countries, the unprofessional way in which airlines deal with delays and cancelations greatly annoys passengers, he said.

Since the problem is caused by airlines’ management of their aircraft rather than any fault of airports, the CAAV would take away flight slots from carriers with high delay and cancelation rates, he said.

It means tardy airlines will not be allowed to fly at certain times of the day.

Management teams comprising employees of both airlines and airports would be set up next month at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City and Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Thang said.

They would be tasked with managing landing and takeoff times as required by the International Civil Aviation Organization for airports with over 20 million passengers a year.

Last month Jetstar Pacific had the highest delay and cancelation rate of 25.5 percent, followed by budget airline Vietjet (21.5 percent), state-owned Vietnam Airlines (11.1 percent) and new private airline Bamboo Airways (9.2 percent), according to the CAAV.

Increasing aviation demand in recent years has resulted in the overloading of Vietnam’s two largest airports. HCMC-based Tan Son Nhat, the biggest, served 36 million passengers last year, way above its designed capacity of 25 million. Hanoi-based Noi Bai handled 24 million against a capacity of 21 million.