No-frills Vietjet has decided to increase administrative service charges for both domestic and international routes, raising concern over a climb in air ticket prices.

In a message sent to ticket agents nationwide on Monday, budget carrier Vietjet announced it would increase service fees in terms of seat selection and booking to a new range between VND210,000 (US$9) and VND370,000 ($16) after June 1, 2018.

Varying on routes, the new administration service charges show a spike of VND100,000-130,000 ($4-6) from the current fee level.

On the same day, a representative of Vietjet confirmed this adjustment, adding that the reason for the fee increase would be cited later.

Meanwhile, flag carrier Vietnam Airlines and its low-cost peer Jetstar Pacific have made no movement regarding this kind of charge.

A source told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that upon Vietjet’s announcement, many ticket agents have encouraged their customers to place booking before June 1 to avoid the new service charges.

On the other hand, aviation experts criticize Vietnam’s carriers for a lack of transparency in charging service fees, from the above administrative fees to utility payments, while all these charges are added to the passenger's ticket price.

Recently, all the three major Vietnamese airlines have failed to make it to the world’s 50 cheapest airlines, according to the third Global Flight Pricing report by the leading travel planning platform Rome2rio.

Vietjet charges its passengers an average of $0.14 per kilometer, compared to $0.15 of its low-cost fellow Jetstar Pacific.

National carrier Vietnam Airlines had a much higher cost per kilometer ratio, $0.3.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!