Vietnamese airlines’ on-time performance rate reaches 85 per cent, Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - The on-time performance (OTP) rate of Vietnamese airlines reached 85 per cent in the first nine months of this year, lower than the 87.8 per cent rate in the same period last year, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.

Bamboo Airways posted the best OTP of 92.4 per cent with 30,068 on-time flights. Some 2,470 flights of Bamboo Airways saw delays.

The rate of VASCO was 92 per cent, Vietravel Airlines 87.1 per cent, Vietnam Airlines 86.6 per cent, Pacific Airlines 14.2 per cent and VietJet 81.3 per cent.

Nearly 221,200 flights were conducted in January – September, including 83,933 flights of VietJet, 79,234 flights of Vietnam Airlines and 32,538 flights of Bamboo Airways.

Pacific Airlines operated 16,245 flights, VASCO 4,734 flights and Vietravel 4,513 flights.

The Vietnam Aviation Administration said that one of the reasons for the delays was the late return of aircraft which led to 5,622 flights failing to depart on time. Another cause was problems related to the operation of carriers, which caused delays for 2,240 flights.

In the period, 715 flights, or 0.3 per cent of the total, were cancelled.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has asked domestic carriers to submit reports about their operation plans and preparation for the coming peak travel period as the Lunar New Year approaches.

It was necessary for airlines to develop a reasonable operation plan based on the actual use of slot records to increase OTP, an expert in the aviation industry said.

In fact, many carriers did not use all of their slots, but they still sold tickets and then collected passengers in one flight, one of the causes of delays and cancellations, he said.

In addition, investment in upgrading infrastructure systems, especially at major airports such as Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat, was important.

Vietnamese carriers handled 44.1 million passengers in the first nine months of this year, an increase of 20.3 per cent against the same period last year. International passengers rose by 300.2 per cent to 11.5 million, while domestic passengers fell by 3.6 per cent to 32.6 million.

Vietnam’s aviation industry saw OTP of nearly 90 per cent in 2022. After the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic passenger numbers increased strongly to reach 101.3 million, or 68.3 per cent higher than the target.