Many flights to Vinh during Tet are delayed or diverted.
According to Vinh International Airport, from December 15, the year of the Dragon, or early January 2025, until now, many flights taking off and landing at Vinh airport have been affected by bad weather conditions.
Specifically, since the beginning of January 2025, dozens of flights to Vinh, especially flights from Tan Son Nhat Airport (Ho Chi Minh City) to Vinh, had to reschedule flights, including delays or takeoffs earlier than the time stated on the ticket. The delay or departure time was 1-2 hours earlier than planned due to the influence of dense fog, which prevented the aircraft from taking off and landing.
According to Mr. Nghiem Manh Tuan - Director of Vinh International Airport, starting from December 23, Vinh International Airport serves an average of 30-32 ships/60-64 takeoffs and landings per day. In particular, the flight from Ho Chi Minh City is often full, so there are about 180-190 passengers/flight, serving an average of nearly 1,000 passengers per day.
Compared to previous years, because Vietnam Airlines cooperated with airports, including Vinh International Airport, to organize additional night flights, the congestion of passengers when boarding and landing at the airport did not occur. However, during this Tet holiday, due to bad weather conditions in the northern provinces and the Vinh airport's signal system not being guaranteed, some flights were unable to land and were forced to divert to land at Noi Bai.
For example, on December 26 (January 25, 2025), due to heavy fog, two flights landing at Vinh airport had to be delayed and diverted to Noi Bai to land. Before that, according to a confirmation from a ground staff at Vinh International Airport (from January 10-15), due to heavy fog, there were frequent delays or redirections.
Given the above situation, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam recommends that air passengers should update weather developments, and after purchasing tickets, they should regularly contact the airline and its website to keep up with flight schedules. Airlines also commit that if passengers are delayed for 2 hours or more, they will be served meals in the waiting room or have to change landing direction, and their rights will be guaranteed when they are supported to move from the transit point to Vinh for free.
A representative of Vinh International Airport also said: This year, the number of passengers returning home for Tet did not increase dramatically like in previous years. However, it is expected that after Tet At Ty, passengers traveling from Vinh to the southern provinces will increase sharply. After serving passengers until the end of the 15th day of the first lunar month and starting from March, Vinh airport will temporarily close for 4 months to implement an upgrade project, including expanding the airport by 6 hectares and installing additional signal lights to serve takeoffs and landings.
Vinh International Airport has flights from Vinh to Noi Bai, Vinh to Ho Chi Minh City, Vinh to Can Tho, Vinh to Pleiku (Gia Lai), Vinh to Lien Khuong (Lam Dong), of which Vietnam Airlines operates the Vinh to Hanoi and Vinh to Ho Chi Minh City routes with a large number of aircraft, accounting for 80% of the number of takeoffs and landings per day; the remaining flights are operated by VietJet Air, Bamboo Airways, and Pacific Airlines, with an average of 4 flights per day and 30-40 flights per week.
