Ho Chi Minh City's New Airport Is About to Open. When Will Taiwan Flights Move?
Long Thành starts commercial flights on December 24, but for the first three months airlines move only if they want to. Under the three-phase plan, routes to Northeast Asia, Taiwan included, should not have to leave Tân Sơn Nhất until the winter schedule that begins in late October 2027.
[Ho Chi Minh City's New Airport Is About to Open. When Will Taiwan Flights Move?]
Long Thành International Airport is scheduled to start commercial operations on December 24. The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) told the Đồng Nai city government on October 30. The airport sits about 40 km from Ho Chi Minh City and is Vietnam's largest by area. The city's existing international gateway is Tân Sơn Nhất.
Long Thành will open small. In the first phase it will handle at most 366 flights a week, and only 44 of them will be international. The rest are domestic. Construction isn't finished either. A Ministry of Construction report in late October listed four packages unlikely to be completed in December: the passenger terminal, the car parks, the cargo terminal and the airside roads. Work on the last three will run into the first quarter of 2027.
Vietnamese carriers will go first. Vietnam Airlines plans to fly Long Thành–Hanoi and has said it wants to move four international routes there from Tân Sơn Nhất: Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Manila. Vietjet will focus on domestic flights. As of October 30, neither airline had started selling tickets for Long Thành.
For travellers from Taiwan, the real question is whether their flight will be moved. In July, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam endorsed ACV's transition plan and reported it to the Ministry of Construction. The plan follows the international schedule changes at the end of March and the end of October, in three phases:
➤ Phase one, from opening to March 27, 2027: airlines decide for themselves whether to move international passenger and cargo flights to Long Thành.
➤ Phase two, March 28 to October 29, 2027: all long-haul international flights and international cargo move to Long Thành. Under ACV's regional breakdown, anything outside Northeast and Southeast Asia counts as long-haul. Northeast and Southeast Asian routes stay at Tân Sơn Nhất.
➤ Phase three, from October 30, 2027: all remaining international flights move to Long Thành. The only exception is short-haul international routes under 1000 km flown by Vietnamese airlines, which can stay at Tân Sơn Nhất.
Under ACV's breakdown, Taiwan falls under Northeast Asia, so phase two doesn't affect it. Taipei is about 2200 km from Ho Chi Minh City, so even Vietnamese carriers flying to Taiwan are well past the 1000 km cutoff. Working from the plan, direct Taiwan–Ho Chi Minh City flights would only have to switch to Long Thành with the winter schedule starting October 30, 2027. Until then, they stay at Tân Sơn Nhất unless an airline chooses to move early. The aviation authority has also said the timeline depends on whether airport facilities, road links and services are ready at the same time.
In the meantime, check which airport is printed on your ticket. The Ministry of Construction has set Long Thành's passenger service charge for domestic flights at the same level as Tân Sơn Nhất. International passengers departing from Long Thành pay USD 25 before tax, USD 5 more than at Tân Sơn Nhất and the same as Hanoi's Nội Bài. The new rate applies to tickets issued from October 1. If you bought a ticket departing Tân Sơn Nhất and the flight later moves to Long Thành, the old Tân Sơn Nhất rate at the time of issue still applies. You won't have to pay the difference.
Getting to and from the city takes some planning. Long Thành will have no rail link at first, and both road routes in use the Ho Chi Minh City–Long Thành–Dầu Giây Expressway. The expressway originally had four lanes and is being widened to eight to 10. The ministry aims to have most of the work done by year-end, though it has previously flagged the project as behind schedule. Deputy Minister of Construction Lê Anh Tuấn has said that once widening is complete, the trip from Thủ Thiêm in Ho Chi Minh City to Long Thành should take about 40 minutes, or 30 in light traffic.
ACV plans to use buses and shuttles to fill the gap left by rail. It will run airport buses and direct shuttles between Tân Sơn Nhất and Long Thành, timed to flight schedules, and has proposed giving them priority on major roads and at intersections. Ho Chi Minh City is studying more than 10 direct bus routes to Long Thành, some stopping only at major hubs. Taxis and ride-hailing cars will wait in a holding area and be dispatched to a dedicated pick-up lane in front of the terminal.
Travellers who land at Tân Sơn Nhất from Taiwan and connect to a domestic flight need to be more careful. Vietjet plans to fly from Long Thành to Hanoi, Hải Phòng, Vinh and Thanh Hóa. When booking those routes, check which airport the domestic leg leaves from, because the two airports are connected only by road. At the end of June last year, an ACV executive discussing transfers between the two airports put it bluntly: "If passengers have to spend five hours between the two airports to make their next flight, no one will want to book."
This article is current as of October 31, 2026.
The Viet Media Pro: at least four in-depth articles a month, access to every paid article, building into a knowledge base on Vietnam's policy, industries, companies, and people.
