According to data from airlines, as of November 26 - 2 months before the 2025 Lunar New Year holiday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (Ministry of Transport) commented that the "head-to-head" movement of air transport during the peak Tet holiday period has clearly formed.

Accordingly, the demand for travel on flights from the South, especially Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi and the Central and Northern provinces such as Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa, Vinh, Quang Binh, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen or the Central Highlands region increased dramatically before Tet and in the opposite direction, after Tet 2025.

Therefore, the booking rate on flights from Ho Chi Minh City to these localities increased sharply from the first day of Tet holiday (January 25, 2025, December 26), mostly reaching over 50%; in which, some routes were almost fully booked, reaching over 90% to 100%, such as Ho Chi Minh City - Hue (99.3%) / Pleiku, Tuy Hoa, Quy Nhon, Quang Binh (100%) / Chu Lai (99.76%),...

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Airlines have to accept one-way empty flights to serve the different travel needs of people during the Lunar New Year. Photo: Hoang Ha

Ticket prices for these routes are also increasing rapidly.

A survey on the afternoon of November 26 showed that the average price of airfare for Lunar New Year 2025 (including taxes and fees) on January 21, 2025 (December 22) on the busiest route from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi is 2.9-3 million VND/way at Vietjet Air and Vietravel Airlines, 3.7 million VND/way at Vietnam Airlines and Bamboo Airways.

The price after Tet (February 2, 2025) from localities to Ho Chi Minh City is similar, mostly at 3.6-3.7 million VND/way.

On flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Hue and Quy Nhon, ticket prices also range from 2.37-2.4 million VND/way.

Thus, one-way airfares on these routes are as expensive as round-trip airfares on normal days.

Meanwhile, in the opposite direction, that is, for flights from localities to Ho Chi Minh City before Tet, the booking rate is very low. Airlines are almost flying empty one way. Specifically, the Hue - Ho Chi Minh City route only reached 12.2%, Pleiku - Ho Chi Minh City 12.8%, Tuy Hoa - Ho Chi Minh City 7.7%, Quy Nhon - Ho Chi Minh City 5.66%,...

Low travel demand makes airfares for these routes very cheap during the peak season of Lunar New Year 2025.

If passengers want to travel on "off-peak" flights during Tet, they will have the opportunity to own tickets at extremely reasonable prices. For example, flying from Hue to Ho Chi Minh City, the ticket price is only from 900,000-1 million VND/way (Vietjet Air) or 1.1-1.7 million VND/way (Vietnam Airlines); flying from Quy Nhon to Ho Chi Minh City, the ticket price is also only from 600,000-700,000 VND/way...

Similar to flights after Tet, that is, after the end of the holiday, from localities to Ho Chi Minh City increased sharply, the average booking rate was up to 75%, even some routes were fully booked such as from Pleiku, Tuy Hoa, Thanh Hoa, Quy Nhon, Chu Lai, Dong Hoi,...

In the opposite direction, the average booking rate is only about 10%, some routes are even very low, such as: Ho Chi Minh City - Hue (10.2%), Ho Chi Minh City - Pleiku (6.65%), Ho Chi Minh City - Quy Nhon (3.29%), Ho Chi Minh City - Chu Lai (7.97%)...

Dozens of aircraft added during Tet peak season

In preparation for the peak season of the Lunar New Year 2025, domestic airlines have planned to add more aircraft and increase capacity. Accordingly, Vietjet Air plans to add 6 more aircraft (owned, dry leased and wet leased) and Vietnam Airlines plans to add 5 more aircraft (dry leased and wet leased).

During the period from January 14 to February 12, 2025, airlines will provide more than 6.9 million seats on international and domestic routes with an average of 227,000 seats/day, an increase of 4% compared to Lunar New Year 2024. The total number of seats provided on domestic routes will be approximately 4.8 million seats (an average of 160,000 seats/day), an increase of about 3.5%, and on international routes will reach more than 2.1 million seats, an increase of 4.6% compared to the same period in 2024.

With a few thousand more flights, will Vietnam Airlines' Tet airfares continue to increase sharply? Vietnam Airlines has just added more than 3,000 flights on domestic routes in Vietnam for the 2025 Lunar New Year, not to mention other airlines also planning to increase capacity, so the supply is abundant. Will Tet airfares cool down?