Online Travel Vietnam: The Ministry of Finance has green-lighted the airliners’ proposal to hike the ceiling prices of domestic flights by up to 20 percent as of December 15.
Accordingly, single tickets for air service connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi will have a new ceiling price of as much as VND2.69 million (US$129), excluding taxes and surcharges. The current cap is VND2.22 million.
Single tickets for HCMC - Da Nang flights will see a ceiling price increase to VND1.77 million, from the current VND1.48. Meanwhile, the Hanoi - Phu Quoc air service, whose single ticket currently fetches VND2.72 million, will cost up to VND3.27 million as of mid-December.
However, airfares could be even higher, with Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Van Hieu also approving a directive allowing the airliners to calculate their ticket prices at a maximum rate of VND3,000 a kilometer.
Accordingly, the HCMC - Hanoi route, which is 1,280 kilometers long, will have the maximum price of VND3.84 million ($184) for single ticket, excluding the 10-percent tax and surcharge.
The Hanoi - Phu Quoc and Hanoi - Con Dao services, the longest domestic air routes, will have a new maximum price of up to VND4.6 million.
Earlier, the price hike proposal from the airliners had raised public objections, since they were allowed to hike prices by nearly 23 percent as recently as April.
In response, the air carriers said that prices must be hiked to ensure profitable operations.
National carrier Vietnam Airlines (VNA) has announced a 15-percent increase for tickets on HCMC - Hanoi, and HCMC - Da Nang services, while other routes will have tickets hiked by up to 20 percent.
Representatives from other airliners, including Air Mekong, Jetstar Pacific, and VietJet Air, all confirmed with Tuoi Tre that they will also hike ticket prices for their domestic flights.
But they refused to elaborate on by how much prices will be adjusted, saying they need to wait for the new prices from VNA to develop their own pricing schemes.
Tour organizers shocked
Many travel agencies were shocked to learn of the new price schemes.
Tran Quoc Bao, head of domestic tour packages at Saigontourist, said certain domestic tour packages have already had their prices increased by up to 15 percent.
"I am wondering whether customers will still be willing to buy tours at even higher prices," Bao said.
Bui Viet Thuy Tien, director of international travel agency Asian Trails, said the company has signed contracts with foreign partners to organize tourism packages for the whole of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 at the old prices.
"I really don't know what to do with the price hikes," she lamented.
Source: tuoitrenews
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