Let’s get right to the punchline. Long Thanh International Airport, the enormous facility that is slated to open in Vietnam in 2026, could well rival Dubai and Dallas as an aviation hub. It is being designed to handle about 100 million passengers per year when it is fully constructed. Impressive, no?
Why Build Something This Big?
Vietnam is no longer a hidden gem. In 2025 alone the country attracted 10.7 million international visitors, a whopping 21% increase over last year. Travelers love it for being affordable, having lots going on, and being picturesque and Instagrammable. The current airport, Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh city, is full to bursting and the government is betting billions on a new hub of greater size and capacity to keep the masses coming.
The Cost and Design
It is not a small project. A whopping £9.5 billion (around Rp 213 quadrillion), the facility itself will be built on 5,000 hectares of land. Three terminals, four runways, and there’s a main hall shaped like a lotus flower with a glass roof 82 metres high, it will be impressive enough. And the design is not functional; its truly iconic.
What is the Timeline?
- Phase 1 (2026): 25 million passenger capacity.
- Phase 2 & 3 (by 2035): 100 million capacity + 4th terminal and runway.
So yes, it’s really a marathon project, not a sprint.
Location and Connectivity
Now there’s one catch: Long Thanh is about 40 km outside of Ho Chi Minh City. This might seem like an annoyance until you factor in new expressways, a planned metro line, and even high-speed rail in some plans intended to fly people into the city. Compared to the lengthy five-hour transit times in decaying conditions to transfer between the current airports, this is going to be a huge improvement.
So will this new airport improve things for Vietnam’s tourism economy? Pretty much guaranteed—the definitive answer. More capacity = more flights = more tourists = more revenue. Vietnam is already going through a travel boom holiday season, and Long Thanh could be the catalyst to push Vietnam into the world aviation map.
