Vietnam carrier turns budget : e-tickets only
Pacific Airlines becomes a budget carrier from Tuesday with prices cut by up to 99 percent and it will only issue tickets online. The fare for Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City can be as low as US$1 with fees and taxes taking the net price to about VND45,000 (US$2.8). Meals will not be served free and have to be bought.
The e-tickets, to replace paper tickets which will no longer be issued, can be booked from agents or on the airline’s website at www.pacificairlines.com.vn.Payments can be made online using Visa, Master Card, American Express, or JCB card. The airlines plans to issue 50,000 e-tickets on internal and international routes.
Its director, Luong Hoai Nam, said the low fares would initially be applied on the Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City sectors and on two international routes from HCMC to Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.Some more routes would be opened this year, from HCMC to Hue, Nha Trang, Hong Kong, Siem Reap, and Bangkok. The airlines had a fleet of 20 aircraft and planned to increase its number of flights from 10 to 12 per day, he said.
Three foreign no-frills airlines now fly to Vietnam – Singapore-based Tiger Airways and Thai AirAsia, and Australia’s Jetstar.Pacific Airlines, which is owned by three partners including the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance and Saigon Tourist, a state-run tourism firm, hopes to carry 8 million passengers annually.
By Tran Hung - Thanh Nien - February 12, 2007
Vietnam Airlines suspends flight yet again
Vietnam Airlines, whose aircraft have been hit by a spate of technical faults recently, saw another flight delayed indefinitely Saturday flight, again on technical grounds. A passenger told Thanh Nien that a Ho Chi Minh City-Hanoi flight had been due to leave at 7 pm but the airlines had announced a delay until 9 pm. At 9.30pm, it had announced a further delay until 5 am the next day. Finally, it had been announced that due to a technical problem, the flight had been delayed until further notice.A source said there had been a problem with Airbus A330’s hydraulic system.
By Sunday evening, the nearly 200 passengers booked on it were still completing procedures for transfer to another flight.
It was the fourth technical glitch in just 10 days for the carrier.
On January 25 an Airbus A320-311 leaving HCMC for Hanoi made an emergency landing shortly after take-off due to loss of cockpit pressure. On February 3 an ATR 72-B112 flight was suspended minutes before taking off from Dien Bien for Hanoi after a fire alarm went off. The same day an Airbus A330 from Hanoi to South Korea’s Seoul was forced to make an emergency landing due to a glitch in the pressurization system. Two days later another Airbus A320-306 was forced to return 30 minutes after taking off from Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport due to abnormal vibrations and a noise in the cabin. The airlines tried to calm fears last week saying things were “under control”. It also denied the mishaps had anything to do with increased use of the airplanes to meet surging demand before Tet, the Lunar New Year, next Saturday.
However, its safety record is excellent with the Ministry of Transport saying on its official website that the carrier has not had an accident or fatality in the last 10 years. Last year the airlines carried over 6.8 million passengers, 3.1 million of them on international routes.
Thanh Nien - February 12, 2007
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