Passengers line up at the security screening entrance at the domestic terminal of Da Nang airport – Photo: CONG TRUNG
As reported, the "priority lane" service with a fee of 100,000 VND at Da Nang airport has created controversy among readers.
To add another perspective on the incident, here is the opinion of reader Nhat Nguyen sent to Tuoi Tre Online.
Should be properly "priority"
Last week, I had a business trip to Tokyo, Japan. Both the outbound and return flights, thanks to my high-class membership card of a domestic airline, I was given priority lanes for security screening and immigration procedures at Noi Bai and Narita airports.
With this membership card, traveling is quick and convenient, helping me save time, have more time to rest, solve work while waiting for the flight and somewhat reduce congestion in the above areas.
Instead of herding all passengers into a few lanes, some passengers are separated for priority, usually first class passengers, business class passengers, VIP passengers, and premium card passengers of some airlines.
This is a practice applied by almost all airports in the country and around the world.
Not only does it reduce the number of passengers in the time-consuming screening and immigration areas, the priority lanes for the above-mentioned passengers also show the importance of airlines to their high-end customer groups.
Priority passengers also feel that they are treated well by the airline and have a sense of privacy. And it is worth mentioning that priority tickets must be truly “priority”, meaning that this group of passengers is automatically allowed to use the priority lane without having to pay any additional costs.
Are priority lane tickets allowed?
Returning to the decision of Da Nang airport to sell priority lane tickets to all passengers in need, which has caused much debate, in my opinion this is a decision that not only surprised me but many people.
According to some opinions, it seems that the airport management board does not fully understand the meaning of the two words "priority" at the airport, besides many opinions that this seems to be an excessive commercialization at the airport.
Da Nang airport cited Article 70, Decree 05/2021/ND-CP to claim that ticket sales were in accordance with regulations.
However, Clause 3 of Article 70 clearly states: it is not allowed to organize non-aviation service businesses at the airport, except for necessary services including grass cutting, construction, installation, cleaning, repair, maintenance, maintenance of aviation works and equipment and advertising services as prescribed in Article 71 of this Decree.
That is, priority lane ticketing is not included in the non-essential non-aviation services that are allowed to be implemented?
In fact, high-end customer groups all want to use the priority lane, because their work is often busy, they want to travel quickly, complete procedures quickly so they can do other work.
Because they often have to spend a large amount of money on airlines to buy high-class tickets, or to travel frequently, sometimes 50-60 flights a year with the same airline. So the need to be treated specially, to be given priority through places that often take time at the airport is inevitable.
Da Nang airport said that some airlines were selling tickets for priority lanes, causing congestion in this lane. However, through observations during trips to this airport, the priority lanes at the security screening area, both in the domestic and international terminals, were often empty, sometimes with no passengers at all.
Some questions need to be answered thoroughly
If the reason given is that ticket companies selling tickets in priority lanes cause congestion in this lane, then why not restrict ticket companies from selling tickets themselves instead of participating in ticket sales to compete? Everyone sees that this is unreasonable because there is already congestion, so how can adding ticket selling units reduce congestion?
Next, if the airline sells without sharing the cost with the airport, why don't the airport and the airline sit down to discuss this issue?
In case an airline's priority passenger and a non-priority passenger who has purchased a ticket for a priority lane both enter the priority lane, who will have priority to go first?
If the airport still wants to provide priority lane service, shouldn't there be two separate priority lanes, one for genuine priority passengers who don't have to pay, and one for paying passengers?
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