Vietnam Airlines aircraft at Noi Bai International Airport. — Photo courtesy Vietnam Airlines
The Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam (CAAV) has issued dispatch No 2947/CHK-VTHK requiring regional airport authorities and airlines to perform their tasks in the phase of renovating and upgrading the runway and taxiway systems at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat international airports.
The two international airports began to renovate and upgrade runways and taxiways since July 1.
However, the work did not meet the plans of the airlines, causing congestion, increasing flight cancellations and affecting service quality.
In order to promptly solve the above situation, CAAV requires airlines to only open tickets for flights with confirmed slots and reduce the frequency of operating small aircraft at Tan Son Nhat.
The authority also asks airlines to increase the frequency of flights at the nearby airports such as Cat Bi and Thanh Hoa or Can Tho and Cam Ranh to reduce overloading at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat.
It also asks airlines to transfer all-cargo flights to and from Tan Son Nhat to nighttime operations from 9pm to 6am.
At the same time, it requires airport authorities to closely monitor the performance of the above-mentioned obligations, strictly handle violations and report the performance to CAAV weekly.
CAAV will strictly deal with airlines that failed to take off and land at their appointed times.
The slots for taking off and landing would be revoked if any airline was found to change the registered take off and landing time.
The projects to upgrade runways in Noi Bai International Aiport and Tan Son Nhat International Airport cost more than VND4 trillion (US$171.5 million) and are expected to be completed by the end of next year.
CAAV said that airlines had stepped up exploiting the domestic market recently to maintain operations and gradually overcome difficulties in terms of revenue and cash flow.
The domestic market has gradually recovered and now there are signs of growth, showing that the supporting policy for airlines in the past period is effective.
The boost in domestic market exploitation also contributes to increasing the demand for domestic tourism, thereby fulfilling the Government's requirements for both pandemic prevention and economic development. — VNS