With large ambitions on tourism and commerce in mind, Vietnam recently announced that the brand-new Long Thanh International Airport will formally be opened for commercial flights on December 1, according to a news report by VnExpress.
Previously, the new international airport was powered up and the local authorities deployed soldiers to help complete the preparations. It is anticipated that most international flights will be handled by Long Thanh International Airport in 2027. During the first half of 2026, Vietnam attracted more than twelve million foreign tourists.
To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the news report of VnExpress. Some parts in boldface…
Vietnam will open its largest airport Long Thanh for commercial flights on Dec. 1 and move most of Ho Chi Minh City’s international traffic there within a year under a newly proposed transition plan.
Long Thanh is the biggest and most expensive airport project in Vietnam’s history, built at a cost of VND336.63 trillion (US$12.8 billion).
Sitting about 40 km east of Ho Chi Minh City, it is built first to relieve the chronically overcrowded Tan Son Nhat, which has run for years beyond its designed capacity.
The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the state operator building Long Thanh, has said it hopes the airport will grow into a regional transit hub able to rival the established gateways in Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, reclaiming the long-haul connecting traffic that now flows through those hubs rather than Vietnam.
Long Thanh opens with capacity for 25 million passengers a year and reaches its full 100-million design ceiling only in later phases still years away. The target will make it surpass Singapore’s Changi, ranked the world’s best airport which handled a record 69.98 million passengers in 2025 and is expanding toward 140 million.
ACV has submitted a plan to split flights between Long Thanh and Tan Son Nhat by region and route distance.
Long Thanh would take all international routes longer than 1,000 km and every cargo flight. Tan Son Nhat would keep shorter international routes flown on Code C jets such as the Airbus A320, A321 and Boeing 737.
Every route to East Asia, West Asia, Oceania and Europe would move to Long Thanh. Southeast Asian routes would be divided roughly 55% to the new airport and 45% to Tan Son Nhat.
The handover would run in three phases pegged to airlines’ seasonal schedules.
From Dec. 1, 2026 to March 27, 2027, Long Thanh would take all long-haul international and cargo flights along with new routes and added HCMC-area frequencies, about 19% of the area’s international passenger volume. Tan Son Nhat would keep its existing routes and open no new international ones.
From March 28 to Oct. 30, 2027, all flights to Europe, the Americas, Oceania, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Central Asia would shift to Long Thanh, leaving Tan Son Nhat with its remaining Northeast and Southeast Asian routes.
From Oct. 31, 2027 to March 25, 2028, Long Thanh would handle nearly all international flights, keeping only scheduled sub-1,000 km routes flown by Vietnamese carriers at Tan Son Nhat.
ACV is targeting the transfer of more than 90% of the area’s international passenger traffic to the new airport by 2027.
Domestic flights would stay largely at Tan Son Nhat, though carriers could pick either airport based on demand across all three phases.
Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Are you convinced that Vietnam could someday attract 30 million foreign tourists by air annually with Long Thanh International Airport at full operation?
You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.
+++++
Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco
Author Carlo Carrasco 