Bluebell Tours RSS
Vietnam news
Jetstar Pacific to upgrade booking network; suspends Hanoi-Hue service 6th June 2008
Jetstar Pacific Airlines is pressing ahead with a plan to improve its
network to make it easier for more passengers to book airtickets online
after the offering of 10,000 promotional tickets caused network jamming
last week. Jetstar Pacific's chief executive officer Luong Hoai Nam told
the Daily that the airline had installed a faster broadband Internet
line as a higher-than-expected number of people accessing the carrier's
website for ticket booking almost froze the website. Nam, however,
said it took at least three weeks for the new Internet line to start
operation.
Le Hai Binh, head of Jetstar Pacific's information technology
department, said the airline had signed a contract with the Australian
firm Telstra to hire a 2-megabit line to enable faster online bookings.
Binh said the old 1-megabit line could not meet a large number of
bookings at a time as had happened on May 28 when Jetstar Pacific
offered 10,000 tickets for VND15,000 each for people to book from 11
a.m. till 9 p.m. the same day.
Binh said experts of Jetstar Airways were ready to help Jetstar Pacific
solve network problems. However, Binh stressed the speed of Jetstar
Pacific's line depended much on Vietnam's current Internet
infrastructure. Pacific Airlines completed its transformation on May 23
to become Jetstar Pacific under a strategic and commercial partnership
with Qantas Group's airline Jetstar. Nam said Jetstar Pacific sold
10,469 cheap airtickets, or 469 tickets higher than its previous
schedule. Of the total number, people outside Vietnam booked 199 tickets
at US$1.
Jetstar Pacific's statistics showed 24,000 customers visited the website
at 4 p.m. and up to 27,000 customers at 2 p.m. of the day, thus jamming
the network. However, the carrier finally sold more than the number of
tickets previously planned for the promotion. The carrier sold from 200
to more than 2,400 promotional tickets an hour, and Nguyen Thi Viet Ha
from Hanoi bought the largest number of 11 tickets.
The ticket promotion was part of a major campaign that Jetstar Pacific
is running to further promote the re-branded carrier and support its
strong future growth within both Vietnam and intra-Asia markets under
the Jetstar brand. Jetstar Pacific has expanded its domestic network by
commencing new services between Hanoi and the central cities of Nha
Trang and Danang on Sunday, and offering everyday fares in the market.
However, Jetstar Pacific on Monday suspended its new Hanoi-Hue service
and will do the same with the run between HCMC and the former imperial
capital of Hue due to increasing fuel costs. Nam explained airlines were
now struggling with rising fuel costs and that Jetstar Pacific would
spare aircraft for the services between Hanoi and HCMC, Danang and other
major routes where demand was high, especially in the summer.
The carrier will offer those passengers who have already booked the
flights from HCMC and Hanoi to Hue and vice versa options to travel with
it to Danang, which about 110 kilometers away from Hue, or get back
their payment. It has also been forced to delay the launch of HCMC-DaIat
and HCMC-Buon Ma Thuot flights scheduled for this August for the same
reason, which Nam said accounted for 60% of the flight operating costs.
Despite suspension of certain domestic services, Nam confirmed that
Jetstar Pacific would open more domestic and international routes this
year when it receives new Booing 737-400s and Airbus A320s.
Source: SGT
About Bluebell Tours
* Join us for free
Scheduled Tours
Click HERE to save cost and see the best of Vietnam and China with our Scheduled Tours
Scheduled Tours
Chau, Vietnam in 3 days
Fill in this form to create your own trip
Tel : (+84) 47236713 / (+84) 1234837328 Fax: (+84) 47236713
Email: info@bluebelltours.net
Address: 02 / 158 / 193 Ngoc Ha – Hanoi – Vietnam
International License No: 0102020404
Copyright © 2004 - 2008 BLUEBELL TOURS. All rights reserved.