Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City is expected to be packed with returnees after the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday.

Many passengers have voiced fears that their luggage on baggage carousels at the airport might be stuck due to large crowds.

The airport was set to handle 843 flights, with over 136,000 passengers on board, on Tuesday, or the fourth day of Tet.

The majority of these passengers who mainly hail from other localities are returning to the city for work.

Nguyen Anh Khoa, a resident of Da Nang City, central Vietnam, said that after the Tet holiday, people tend to carry many bags of food, gifts and clothes to return to the southern metropolis.

Air passengers will have to wait long by baggage carousels for their luggage to come out after their planes touch down.

The domestic terminal of the airport houses six baggage carousels, with each handling bags from three to five flights.

A representative of a ground service company at Tan Son Nhat International Airport said that during peak periods, some planes make a landing next to others, lengthening the time of transporting bags from planes to the terminal.

As such, long waits by baggage carousels for luggage at the airport are unavoidable. 

Local airlines have asked their partners to beef up staffing to help ease congestion at the airport.

Pacific Airlines had previously recruited an additional 103 drivers, baggage handlers and aircraft cleaners at Tan Son Nhat International Airport during the nation’s biggest holiday. 

Taxi service providers and ride-hailing service operators are committed to supplying an adequate number of cabs to serve passengers at Tan Son Nhat International Airport after Tet. Photo: Cong Trung / Tuoi Tre

The lack of taxicabs at the airport is another headache. 

However, many taxi service operators and ride-hailing service providers have pledged to supply an adequate number of cabs to serve returnees after Tet, said a representative of the airport management board.

Since the start of February, multiple tech-based solutions have been employed at the airport to ease overcrowding inside the airport.

In particular, the Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) model was aimed at enhancing on-time take-off and landing rates for flights.

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