ICA’s passengers flocking to director’s residence to claim back cash

Indochina Airlines have said that on January 28, 2010 it refunded 300 million dong to passengers who returned tickets.

300 million dong (16,660 dollar) is the sum paid for 200 tickets. It is estimated that Indochina Airlines will have to spend 1.6 billion dong (88,880 dollar) more for some 900 tickets which will be completed by the end of next week. In Hanoi, booking agents will use their money to pay back to passengers and then reclaim the cash later from Indochina Airlines.

“We commit to paying back money to passengers who purchased tickets but were not served,” said Le Hong Pho, Managing Director of Indochina Airlines.

However, Nguoi lao dong newspaper has reported that many passengers still complain that they cannot contact the airline’s directory inquiries and that no one is giving guidance about who they have to contact. Many of them said that it is now too late to book tickets with other airlines to fly during Tet.

Nguoi lao dong reported that hundreds of passengers on January 28, 2010 continued flocking to booking agents and head office of the airlines, and even flocked to the residence of Indochina Airlines general director Ha Hung Dung to claim back money

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV), Indochina Airlines now has only nine billion dong (500,000 dollar) in its account. Meanwhile, the air carrier has to pay 1.9 billion dong for the returned air tickets. In addition, the air carrier still owes 30 billion dong to the suppliers. The air carrier owes 20 billion dong (1,110,000 dollar) alone for fuel to Vietnam Air Petrol Company (Vinapco).

Lai Xuan Thanh, Deputy Head of CAAV, said that when Vietnam opened the aviation transport market to private businesses to create a competitive market, besides the requirements on flight safety, the management agency tried to set up technical barriers to avoid the existence of ‘airlines on paper’.

In particular they wanted to avoid the station whereby the airlines receive a license but are not capable of providing flights as well as unprofitable airlines

However, Thanh said, so far they’ve been unable to avoid these scenarios.

Experts said that Indochina Airlines has been fallen into dilemma. If it gets dissolved, it will waste hundreds of billions of dong it has already invested.

If it decides to continue providing flights, it still does not know where it will find the money.

VietNamNet/NLD

Tags: Indochina Airlines, Vietnam aviation