Long Thanh airport to handle 80% of int’l flights to HCMC area, Tan Son Nhat airport 20%

Long Thanh International Airport, located in Dong Nai province, will serve 80% of international flights to the Ho Chi Minh City area and 10% of domestic flights, while Tan Son Nhat in neighboring HCMC will manage 20% and 90%, respectively.

This is stated in the Construction Ministry’s recent report on the operational plan for Tan Son Nhat and Long Thanh’s Phase 1, according to the government’s news portal.

The ministry said the feasibility study for Phase 1 of the Long Thanh International Airport project, approved by the Prime Minister on November 11, 2020, defined an operational model in which the two airports would operate concurrently as a paired system.

Specifically, at Long Thanh International Airport, all international routes of 1,000 km or more will be handled by the airport, while airlines will choose operations for shorter international routes. Domestic flights will be operated at the discretion of Vietnamese carriers.

Long Thanh airport is expected to account for 10% to 12% of traffic on the Hanoi/Danang-HCMC trunk routes operated by domestic carriers.

At Tan Son airport, the international flight plan will cover all routes under 1,000 km. The airport is expected to serve markets between HCMC and Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, accounting for 15% to 17% of total international traffic to the HCMC area. Domestic flight operations will be at the discretion of Vietnamese carriers.

The state will allocate the share of international and domestic flights at each airport over time, with the criteria to be reviewed after the first five years of operation.

To ensure smooth, high-quality operations and achieve the project’s objectives, a task force has been established to prepare for the launch of Long Thanh airport.

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) has selected Incheon Airport Consortium to provide management consultancy services for Long Thanh International Airport. The consortium consists of two members, led by the Incheon International Airport Corporation of South Korea and the PMI Consulting Services JSC of Vietnam.

The consortium has developed a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) and an overall plan for bringing Long Thanh International Airport into operation, including a detailed study on how to allocate flights between Tan Son Nhat and Long Thanh airports.

The construction ministry noted that Long Thanh airport is a national key project with complex investment components, and developers are expediting progress to ensure the airport is operational as planned.

“The Ministry of Construction will continue to assess, actively coordinate, and allocate international and domestic flight shares at each airport over time to ensure efficient operations at Long Thanh and Tan Son Nhat airports,” the report said.

Located about 40 km east of HCMC, Long Thanh International Airport is Vietnam’s biggest aviation infrastructure project to date, with a total investment of VND336.63 trillion ($12.76 billion). The airport is being developed in three phases.

The first phase, nearing completion and slated for opening next year, includes one runway, a passenger terminal, and auxiliary facilities designed to serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo annually.

Phase 2, scheduled by 2035, will expand capacity to 50 million passengers and 1.5 million tons of cargo by adding a second runway and terminal. In the final phase, Long Thanh is expected to reach full operational capacity of 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo per year by 2050.

Once completed, the 5,000-hectare airport will help ease congestion at HCMC's Tan Son airport, which currently operates beyond its 25-million-passenger capacity.