Overloaded Tan Son Nhat airport fares badly in service quality ranking

On a scale of five, service quality at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest airport, remained unchanged from 2017 at 3.96, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV).

Cat Bi International Airport in the northern port city of Hai Phong had the highest overall score at 4.56, followed by Cam Ranh International Airport in central Nha Trang town at 4.31.

The Da Nang International Airport ranked third with a score of 4.23, Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi was fourth with 4.22 and Phu Quoc International Airport in southern Kien Giang Province was fifth with 4.04.

Passengers were least satisfied with public transportation at Tan Son Nhat, which got a score of 3.85, while lounge services also failed to impress with 3.86.

The main reason for Tan Son Nhat airport faring badly in the ranking is that it is overloaded, the CAAV said, noting that it served 38 million passengers last year, up 6.4 percent from 2017, way above its designed capacity of 25 million passengers.

But the airport has made improvements despite the overload, the CAAV said. Passengers gave the airport a higher score compared to 2017 at check-in counters, security check and immigration areas.

The Noi Bai and Da Nang airports have increased their scores over last year despite handling a larger number of passengers, showing that they have made efforts to provide high-quality services to passengers, the CAAV said.

The survey, carried out between October and December last year, polled 25,000 respondents.