Tan Son Nhat International Airport

Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport (IATA: SGN, ICAO: VVTS) is an international airport serving Ho Chi Minh City, the most populous city in Vietnam. The airport is located in the Tân Bình district within the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area.
It is the busiest airport in Vietnam, with 32.5 million passengers in 2016, 38.5 million passengers in 2018, and about 41 million passengers in 2023. As of December 2023, it is the 50th-busiest airport in the world, and the fourth-busiest in Southeast Asia. As of April 2024, it has a total capacity of only around 30 million passengers, which has caused constant and increasing traffic and congestion, hence it has sparked debates for expanding or building a new airport, of which the plan of the new airport as an alternative is under construction since 2021, and will be completed by the first half of 2026.
Of the routes the airport serves, the domestic Ho Chi Minh City–Hanoi route is the busiest in Southeast Asia and the fourth-busiest in the world, serving around 11 million passengers in 2023. Its IATA airport code, SGN, is derived from the city's former name of Saigon.
Tan Son Nhat International Airport has its origins in the early 1930s when the French colonial government constructed a small airport with unpaved runways, known as Tân Sơn Nhứt Airfield near the village of Tan Son Nhut.
By mid-1956, with U.S. aid, a 7,200-foot (2,190 m) runway had been built; the airfield near Saigon became known as South Vietnam's principal international gateway. During the Vietnam War (or Second Indochina War), Tan Son Nhut Air Base (then using the Southern spelling "Tân Sơn Nhứt") was an important facility for both the U.S. Air Force and the Republic of Vietnam Air Force. Between 1968 and 1974, Tan Son Nhut Airport was one of the busiest military airbases in the world. Pan Am schedules from 1973 show that during the last days of South Vietnam, Boeing 747 service was being operated four times a week to San Francisco via Guam and Manila. Continental Airlines operated up to 30 Boeing 707 military charters per week to and from Tan Son Nhut Airport during the 1968–74 period.
On 9 December 2004, United Airlines became the first U.S. airline to fly to Vietnam since Pan Am's last flight during the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. Flight UA 869, operated using a Boeing 747-400 landed at Ho Chi Minh City, the terminus of the flight that originated from San Francisco via Hong Kong. On 29 October 2006, this service was switched from San Francisco to Los Angeles with a stop in Hong Kong, operating as UA 867 (also using a 747–400). In 2009, the service UA 869 has resumed once again from San Francisco via Hong Kong International Airport. United ended the route to San Francisco via Hong Kong on 30 October 2011. The airline resumed the route from Ho Chi Minh City to Hong Kong after its merger with Continental Airlines. The flight until suspended, no longer made a stop at San Francisco and was flown on a Boeing 777-200ER instead of the 747-400.
In 2006, Tan Son Nhat International Airport served approximately 8.5 million passengers (compared with 7 million in 2005) with 64,000 aircraft movements. It has recently accounted for nearly two-thirds of the arrivals and departures at Vietnam's international gateway airports. Due to increasing demand (about 15–20% per annum), the airport has been continuously expanded by the Southern Airports Corporation.
In 2010, Tan Son Nhat domestic terminal handled 8 million passengers, its maximum capacity. The airport reached its full capacity of 20 million passengers in 2013, two years earlier than predicted. Both domestic and international terminal are being expanded to meet the increasing demand. In December 2014, expansion for the domestic terminal was finished, boosting the terminal's capacity to 13 million passengers per annum. In September 2017, People's Army of Vietnam ceded 21 hectare of military land in the vicinity of the airport to Airports Corporation of Vietnam for civil use. This gave way for the construction of 21 new aircraft parking spaces, expected to be completed by Tet holidays in 2018. Tan Son Nhat will then have 72 parking spaces for airplanes.
Of the routes the airport serves, the Ho Chi Minh City–Hanoi route is the busiest in Southeast Asia and the seventh busiest in the world, serving 6,769,823 customers in 2017.
Until the opening of the International Terminal in 2007, the domestic terminal was the sole civilian terminal of the airport. The French Indochinese administration built the original terminal. It initially covered an area of 1,800 m (19,000 sq ft). Between 1954 and 1975 when the airport quickly became one of the busiest airports in the world, it was expanded 4 more times: in 1956, 1960, 1963 (which was handled by the contractor RMK-BRJ), and 1969. By 1972, the terminal grew to 10,800 m (116,000 sq ft) in space with a capacity of 1.5 million passengers a year.
In recent history, after years of constant expansion to meet growing traffic, the terminal's handling capacity increased tenfold to 15 million passengers a year as of 2023. It has a floor area of 40,948 m (440,760 sq ft) with 20 boarding gates (4 aerobridge gates and 16 remote gates).
The terminal has two lounges: Lotus Lounge and Le Saigonnais Lounge. After the opening of Terminal 3, the terminal will serve domestic flights for VASCO, Pacific Airlines, Bamboo Airways and Vietravel Airlines.
A new international terminal, constructed by a consortium of four Japanese contractors (KTOM, abbreviation of four contractors' names: Kajima – Taisei – Obayashi – Maeda), opened in December 2007 with an initial designed capacity of 10 million passengers a year. The terminal was funded by Japanese official development assistance at a cost of 219 million USD. Following the opening of its new international terminal in September 2007, Tan Son Nhat has two major terminal buildings with separate sections for international and domestic flights.
In 2014, the terminal served over 9 million international passengers and a demand of an expansion to the terminal was in sight. Plan for a 109 million-USD expansion of the international terminal was approved in August 2014. The first phase of an urgent expansion to the terminal was finished in December 2016 with the addition of 2 new jet bridges and other facilities. Upon the completion of phase two in 2018, the terminal has a floor area of 115,834 m (1,246,830 sq ft) and 26 boarding gates, and can handle 13 million passengers annually.
There are a total of five passenger lounges situated in the International Terminal: Lotus Lounge 1 and 2, Le Saigonnais, Orchid Lounge, and Rose Business Lounge.
The terminal is connected to Terminal 1 by an outdoor walkway on the landside.
A new passenger terminal for the airport broke ground on 24 December 2022. The new terminal includes 27 gates (13 jetbridges and 14 remote gates) for an annual handling capacity of 20 million passengers. The terminal building have a total floor area of 112,500 m (1,211,000 sq ft), and is connected with a new 130,000 m (1,400,000 sq ft) non-aviation services and parking complex by footbridges. The project has a budget of 10,986 billion VND (US$467.6 million) and was projected to be completed by the end of 2024, which is now slated to be completed by April 2025. Upon completion, the terminal will serve domestic flights to support the current domestic terminal. Vietnam Airlines and VietJet Air will move their domestic operations from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 starting from May 5, 2025.
Tan Son Nhat Airport currently has three cargo terminals. Two of them (Air Freight Terminal 1 and 2) are operated by Tan Son Nhat Cargo Services (TCS) and the other one is operated by Saigon Cargo Services Corporation (SCSC). These facilities have a handling capacity of 700,000 tonnes of cargo per year combined.
TCS's Air Freight Terminal 1 was the first cargo terminal at the airport. It was inaugurated on January 1, 1997. In May 2012, Air Freight Terminal 2 was opened after 20 months of construction. The latter was built at a cost of $15 million and covers an area of 13,700 m (147,000 sq ft).
The Prime Minister of Vietnam, by Decision 1646/TTg-NN, has approved the addition of 40 hectares (99 acres) of the adjacent area to extend the apron and to build a cargo terminal to handle the rapid increase of passenger (expected to reach 17 million in 2010, compared to 7 million and 8.5 million in 2005 and 2006 respectively) and cargo volume at the airport.
The SCSC cargo terminal was constructed from March 2009 to December 2010 at a cost of $50 million. The cargo handling area consists of a 26,670 m (287,100 sq ft) cargo terminal, 52,421 m (564,250 sq ft) of apron area, and 64,000 m (690,000 sq ft) of warehouse and other facilities.
The airport has two parallel runways, namely 07L/25R, and 07R/25L. Since the runways are only 365 meters apart, they are operated dependently. Due to the maximum processing capacity of the passenger terminals (about 3,600 passengers/hour), the runway system's capacity is capped at 44 operations per hour. During peak seasons such as Tết, the hourly limit is extended to 48 operations.
The original air traffic control tower is situated between present-day taxiway Y1 and S5. It was originally built in 1949 before being rebuilt in 1959. During the Tet Offensive in 1968, the tower was damaged by a rocket and a new tower was built in June 1969.
A new 70-meter (230-feet) tall air control tower was put into use in 2013. The new airport control tower is situated in the corner area between the Domestic Terminal and the International Terminal.
There were four USAF ATRC facilities in Viet Nam in the 1960-1973 era. The one located on Tan son Nhut was designated Paris ATRC. Patty was located down in the Delta, there was one in Da Nang, and Pyramid was in the highlands. Paris operated on the top Dias inside the radar facility located mid-base with the US Army's Recovery and ground radio operations. The USAF 2027th Communications Squadron staffed the air traffic controllers that operate the scopes and handle all non-civilian in-country fixed wing radar traffic 24-7. Once Tan Son Nhut radar traffic got within 15 miles of the base it was normally handed off to Approach Control for sequencing and landing, which operated inside the air control tower. Usually none of the local helicopter traffic was under radar control; it was basically flown VFR and was based at Hotel 3. There was too much air traffic for controllers to be able to handle anything but fixed wing. In 70-71 VNAF controllers were introduced to work alongside the 2027th squadron's controllers to help with communication with pilots who did not speak English.
Source: Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
A bus station is situated in front of the international terminal and is served by Ho Chi Minh City Bus. It is connected to the city center by bus line 109 and 152 as well as shuttle bus line 49. Connecting the airport to Vung Tau and other cities in Mekong Delta are express minibus services as well as bus line 119 (via Mien Tay Bus Station).
The airport is expected to be served by Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line 4B, connected to Line 4 and 5 with services to the southern and eastern area of the city. However, it is currently not known when the line will be constructed.
There are several options for getting a taxi from the airport to the city
Until 2016, the airport only had one main access route via Trường Sơn Street, which caused chronic congestion for traffic going in and out of the airport. As an effort to ease traffic bottleneck, in August 2016, Phạm Văn Đồng Boulevard officially opened and connected the airport to National Route 1 in an intersection east of the airport.
The new terminal 3 building will be accessible via a new road connecting the existing Trần Quốc Hoàn Street and Cộng Hòa Street. This new connector road is expected to alleviate the traffic pressure surrounding the airport area and provide an alternative exit from the airport to the west side of the city.
Throughout its history there have been several incidents that happened at the airport, some of the most notable are summarized below:
Tan Son Nhat International Airport is located inside the crowded urban core of Ho Chi Minh City, making expansions difficult. In a report submitted to the Vietnamese National Assembly in 2015, legislators deemed continued expansion of Tan Son Nhat problematic in five aspects. Firstly, it would be more economically viable to build a new airport rather than extensively upgrade Tan Son Nhat. An estimated US$9.1 billion was reportedly needed for a new 4,000 m runway, a new passenger terminal and other facilities at Tan Son Nhat. Secondly, Tan Son Nhat airspace overlaps with that of Bien Hoa Airport, which is currently reserved for national defense purpose. A reduction in military activities in Bien Hoa is considered to be temporary and unsustainable. At the same time, Tan Son Nhat also acts as a strategic location in national defense; therefore, the airport cannot be used entirely for civic air transport. Additionally, due to its urban location, aside from increasing ground traffic stress in its access points, the airport cannot operate between midnight and 5AM in accordance to the International Civil Aviation Organization sustainable development goals, further limiting its capability.
However, Ho Chi Minh City People's Assembly believed that building a new airport can be impractical and unrealistic, giving that the numbers supporting the new airport are "wrong calculations, magical stats" to "trick others with a purpose of serving their own designs." The cost of construction is too high in the midst of already-suppressed national debt, stressing the people without fully-diagnosed value. It is believed that the delay of the expansion is due to the military-run golf course at the north of the airport, where the land is listed as "defense land." Ho Chi Minh City hired an independent French consultant firm ADPi to evaluate the suggestions. The firm supported the idea of expansion at first, but then called off and delayed its final statement, and finally released a report to support the new airport proposition. The city's Assembly responded that the report was rigged.
Following Decision 703/QĐ-TTg by the Vietnamese Prime Minister in July 2005, a new airport—Long Thanh International Airport—was planned to replace Tan Son Nhat airport for international departure use. The initial master plan for the new airport was publicly announced in December 2006. The new airport will be built in Long Thành District, Đồng Nai Province, about 40 km (25 mi) east of Ho Chi Minh City and 65 km (40 mi) north of the petroleum-focused city of Vung Tau, near Highway 51A.
According to the approved modified plan in 2011, Long Thanh International Airport will be constructed on an area of 50 square kilometers (19 sq mi), and will have four runways (4,000 m x 60 m or 13,100 ft x 200 ft) and be capable of receiving the Airbus A380. The project will be divided in three stages. Stage One calls for the construction of two parallel runways and a terminal with a capacity of 25 million passengers per year, due to be completed in 2020. Stage Two is scheduled for completion in 2030, giving the airport three runways, two passenger terminals and a cargo terminal designed to receive 1.5 million metric tons of cargo and 50 million passengers per year. The final stage is scheduled to be initiated after 2035, envisioned to handle 100 million passengers, 5 million metric tons of cargo annually on an infrastructure of four runways and four passenger terminals. The total budget for the first stage alone was estimated to be US$6.7 billion.
In accordance with the master planning of Vietnam's network of airports, Tan Son Nhat will continue to operate after the opening of Long Thanh International Airport. In the feasibility report for Long Thanh, Airports Corporation of Vietnam proposed that, for international carriers, only low-cost carriers would fly out of Tan Son Nhat, while for Vietnamese carriers, only short-haul international flights and selected domestic routes would be operated out of the airport. In another report, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam presented a different approach to the division of flights between the two airports. As such, Tan Son Nhat would only serve flights under 1000 km operated by Code C aircraft or smaller.
Because Long Thanh will not be ready for service until at least 2025, Tan Son Nhat must expand to meet the increasing demand. In January 2017, Airport Design and Construction Consultancy (ADCC) presented three proposals to expand the airport. Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng agreed to proceed a US$860 million upgrade proposal for final review before submitting to the government. Under the chosen proposal, there would be a new mixed-use Terminal 3 and a civil-use Terminal 4 (to be built on the south side of the airport), a parallel taxiway between the existing runways and technical hangars on the northeast. The estimated time to complete the upgrade would be three years and the airport would then have a capacity of 43–45 million passengers annually. The decision was controversial due to the fact that the golf course immediately north of SGN would remain untouched despite the urgent need of airport expansion. The Minister of Transport Trương Quang Nghĩa explained that the airport could not be expanded northward due to costs and environmental impact. On 12 June 2017, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc requested the Ministry of Transport to research the prospect of constructing a third runway at Tan Son Nhut International Airport. The French consulting company ADP Ingénierie (ADPi) was subsequently hired to provide a second opinion for the project.
In March 2018, ADPi presented their plan for the expansion. The firm advised against the construction of a third runway and supported a southward expansion plan. Without a new runway, Tan Son Nhat has a maximum capacity of 51 million passengers per year – a number ADPi predicted SGN to reach in 2025, in time for the opening of Long Thanh. However, an independent consultancy of Ho Chi Minh City believed it could reach up to 80 million by the time Long Thanh was supposed to open, in accordance with reports by Boeing or the International Air Transport Association. As such, they proposed a three-phase northward expansion plan that would see a new runway and two new terminals to increase the airport's capacity to 70 million passengers per year.
On 28 March 2018, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc ultimately selected the ADPi proposal as the basis for the expansion of the airport. This proposal includes a new Terminal 3 with a designed capacity of 20 million passengers per year south of Runway 07R/25L, additional facilities in the north area where a golf court currently occupies as well as improvements and constructions of access points for the airport.