HANOI : The number of passengers using Vietnam's airlines over the Tet (Lunar New Year) Holiday was more than 20 per cent higher than two years ago, before the Covid-19 pandemic halted travel.

Flight occupancy rates in the days after Tet reached approximately 100 per cent on most routes, 10 per cent higher than in the same period in 2020.

During the peak travel season, from Jan 6 to Jan 29, airlines such as Vietnam Airlines, Pacific Airlines, and Vasco served 2.4 million passengers, corresponding to more than 14,500 flights on domestic and international networks.

Statistics from the Ministry of Transport (MoT) show that domestic airports welcomed more than 1.9 million passengers in seven days of the Lunar New Year, an increase of 58 per cent compared to last year.

Vietnamese airlines transported more than 967,000 passengers, up 60.7 per cent over the same period.

The number of flights taking off and landing at Vietnamese airports was about 13,000, up 39 per cent.

From Jan 20 to 21, Noi Bai Airport welcomed 24,900 and 20,700 international arrivals, respectively.

Data from the MoT’s Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam showed that from Dec 19 last year to Jan 18 this year, Bamboo Airways continued to lead the entire domestic aviation industry in on-time performance (OTP) with 96.4 per cent.

Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air were at 95.9 per cent and 95 per cent, respectively. The industry's average OTP rate was 95.3 per cent.

A representative of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism assessed that this series of positive signals showed that tourism activities continued to maintain their recovery momentum and had completely overcome the difficulties of the past two pandemic years.

The tourism industry aims to welcome 110 million passengers this year, including 80 million passengers at airports.

  - ANN