Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City has seen a surge in travel volume as people travel for the New Year holidays, which take place between December 31, 2022 and January 2, 2023.
The airport is expected to serve 720 flights and up to 115,000 passengers on the peak day of December 31. This is the highest daily passenger number since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2021.
Of that amount of passengers, international arrivals are expected to increase to more than 37,000 per day.
Nguyen Nam Tien, Deputy Director of the Tan Son Nhat International Airport, said the airport has prepared plans to meet the upcoming high demand.
All units have been asked to pay attention to monitor the flight schedule, frequency and density of flight operations in each time frame and arrange personnel to ensure airport services.
Airlines and ground service units have been required to increase personnel to guide and support passengers in a bid to prevent flight delays.
Aviation security will pay special attention to the security area in lobby B in the early morning of December 31, 2022 to avoid congestion.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said it will enhance aviation security control to Level 1 for the upcoming holidays.
Under Level 1 aviation security control, people will not be allowed to enter the restricted area to pick up and see off passengers, and inspections of personal documents and personal interviews when doing aviation security procedures will be strengthened. Passengers will be required to remove their shoes and coats, and put them through the X-ray machine.
Airport security will randomly check 15% of passengers who pass through the magnetic gate without triggering the alarm and 15% of hand baggage and checked baggage which have been X-rayed without questionable images.
Aviation security surveillance cameras will strengthen monitoring at different areas of the airport and daily reports will be sent to the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam.
According to Tien, the Tan Son Nhat International Airport will likely receive the highest number of passengers in four years during the peak of Lunar New Year Festival (Tet).
Some 820 flights with 130,000 passengers are expected to depart from and arrive at the airport per day.
The number of passengers is forecasted to be the most crowded during two days – nearly 123,000 on January 20, 2023 and more than 144,000 people on January 29, 2023 when people return to their hometowns before Tet and head back to HCM City after Tet holiday.
As expected, the airport will welcome more than 3.8 million passengers with nearly 27,000 flights during the holiday, an increase of nearly 10% compared to the same period in 2019.
