Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The has sent an urgent dispatch to order agencies to fix shortcomings in taking-off and landing slots for aeroplanes at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat International Airports.

Aeroplanes at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi  

Planes currently have to queue for up to an hour to take off and fly around for dozens of minutes to wait to land as the two major airports have temporarily closed one runway each for repairs since June 29, he said.

The asked the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam to evenly divide slots for taking off and landing at every time of day to fix the situation.

He also told relevant agencies to increase the number of flights at nearby airports such as Cat Bi and Thanh Hoa or Can Tho and Cam Ranh to reduce overloading on Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat.

The civil aviation authority was asked to strictly deal with airlines that failed to take off and land at their appointed times, he added.

The agency was told to work with relevant parties to notify passengers about their flight, check-in time and encourage passengers to book flights from and to nearby airports instead of Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat airports to reduce overloading and congestion, he said.

The slots for taking off and landing will be revoked if any airline is found to change the registered taking off and landing time, he said.

The projects to upgrade runways in Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi and Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City cost more than VND4 trillion (US$171.5 million) and are expected to be completed by the end of 2021.