Vietnam should be more open to negative feedback on airports, passengers say A family rest tiredly on the floor to wait for their delayed flight at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City. Tuoi Tre Vietnam aviation authority must be willing to listen to feedback, even those that are negative and not objective, on the country’s two major airports and be more open-minded to improve the shortcomings being complained, local passengers have said. A number of passengers have called on the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) to be more open towards the negative feedback on Tan Son Nhat and Noi Bai airports after the two terminals were listed among the worst in Asia by an airport review website on October 15. Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport and Ho Chi Minh City-based Tan Son Nhat are ranked fifth and eighth in the “Top 10 Worst Airports in Asia 2014” list published by The Guide to Sleeping in Airports, a website providing airport reviews and tips for sleeping in the airport overnight. After the news was spread by local media, the CAAV responded in a press release on Monday that the poll result “does not objectively reflect the service quality improvement at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat airports.” “The poll result is merely determined by the members of the website, which is not a professional aviation assessment organization,” the document reads. La Phuong Thuy, in an email sent to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, said the CAAV should not undervalue the poll result. “If [the CAAV] keeps refusing to accept the shortcomings and blame the poll result on the lack of objectiveness, the two airports will soon top the list of Asia’s worst terminals,” she said. The Guide to Sleeping in Airports said the poll result is “based on overall airport experience as determined by [the site’s] voters” in the 2014 Airport Survey. “Those represented on this list show up because of their consistent uncleanliness, their counter-intuitive layout and absolute lack of amenities,” it said. These reasons must be taken into account so that they can be improved, according to the majority of comments sent to Tuoi Tre on the issue. Some passengers also said from their own experience, they totally, or partly, agree with the remarks about the two airports by The Guide to Sleeping in Airports. The Canada-based website said Noi Bai airport is “frequently noted for being hot, chaotic and not especially clean.” As for the Tan Son Nhat airport, The Guide to Sleeping in Airports describes it as having average facilities, but its cleanliness levels fluctuate. “I think these comments are objective and accurate,” a reader named To Van Anh said. “The Ministry of Transport and the CAAV should consider improving these issues so that the two airports’ rankings will be better next year.” Dinh Chi Thanh, another reader, said if there is the most objective feedback on an airport, it must be from the passengers. “It is the passengers who know what really happens with an airport,” he said. “So we can’t really say the poll result is untrue.” Nguyen Long, who frequently travels by air, urged the CAAV and the managing authorities at the airports to be more open-minded. “I think the problem can be solved by people with high responsibility and self-esteem,” he said. In its Monday statement, the CAAV also said it acknowledged the website’s comments and remarks as “important information,” from which more solutions to better improve the service quality at the country’s airports will be worked out. The Guide to Sleeping in Airports was founded in 1996 by Donna McSherry, a former travel consultant specializing in South America, as a database of airport reviews. TUOI TRE NEWS