Airlines should automatically refund passengers for delayed or canceled flights: lawmakers

The National Assembly held a plenary discussion on the draft amendment to the Civil Aviation Law on Wednesday and one of the key issues raised by members was the lack of clear and fair compensation mechanisms for passengers when airlines delay or cancel flights.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, the rate of on-time flights in the first nine months of the year was just 64.6%.

Among the major carriers, Vietjet recorded an on-time performance rate of a mere 55% while for Vietnam Airlines it was around 70%.

Huynh Thi Phuc, deputy head of the Ho Chi Minh City NA delegation, said passengers are often annoyed by vague explanations from airline staff about "late aircraft arrival" and "operational issues."

She herself has experienced delays of up to two hours, and her flight was postponed three times while she was travelling to Hanoi for the previous NA session, she lamented.

Scuffles have broken out between frustrated passengers and staff offering them repeated apologies, and in today’s social media age, such incidents spread quickly online, damaging the global image of Vietnamese carriers, she warned.

Deputy Pham Van Hoa of Dong Thap Province called the situation "highly problematic," pointing to the innumerable cases of three- and four-hour delays.

"People cannot accept 'operational issues' as a reason for flight delays."

Phuc said regulations on airlines' responsibilities for delays and cancellations remain vague and without clear deadlines for refunds or compensation.

She wanted airlines to publicly announce the reasons for delays and limit the number of postponements to not more than two per flight.

"This will allow passengers to plan ahead and feel less frustration."

She also suggested that airlines should be required by law to refund passengers within seven working days after receiving a request.

The CAAV should regularly publish data on complaint resolution and refund rates to ensure transparency for passengers choosing airline services, she added.

HCMC deputy Nguyen Tam Hung proposed that airlines should automatically compensate passengers within seven days.

"Airlines must respond to complaints within three days and fully resolve them within 30 days," he said, adding that no service fees should be deducted when issuing refunds for airline-caused delays and cancellations.

Under current regulations, compensation for long delays or cancellations on domestic routes ranges from VND200,000 to VND400,000 (US$7.60-15.20) , while for international routes from Vietnam, it ranges from $25 to $150. Refunds must be processed within 14 working days from the date of the delayed or canceled flight.

However, in reality, not many passengers have been compensated when their flights are delayed.

On its website, VietJet Air stated that "we are exempt from the obligation to provide non-refundable advance compensation in the event of flight cancellation or significant delay" due to a number of reasons, including "weather conditions affecting the safe operation of the flight," and "a technical incident occurring during aircraft operations, measured from the time the aircraft commander signs off on the aircraft as ready for the flight until the end of the flight."

Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh agreed that the amended law should include stricter provisions. He noted that, in addition to weather and aircraft shortages caused by supply chain disruptions, limited airport infrastructure contributes to frequent delays as flight density increases at major hubs.

He cited Tan Son Nhat Airport as an example, where planes often circle for 15 minutes to an hour waiting for landing clearance. "This not only increases fuel costs for airlines but also worsens environmental pollution," he said.

Tan Son Nhat, the country's busiest airport, currently cannot accommodate simultaneous takeoffs and landings because its two runways are only 365 meters apart, while the international standard requires at least 1,350 meters. Minh added that addressing this bottleneck will require major investment and extensive land clearance in Ho Chi Minh City.

He also pointed out that airlines sometimes face unavoidable weather-related disruptions. Drawing on his own experience handling a nighttime delay at Tho Xuan Airport in Thanh Hoa due to a storm, he urged lawmakers and the public to show understanding, saying both the aviation authorities and airlines "never want such incidents to occur."