In Ho Chi Minh City, a review has begun of a plan to fully rebuild Terminal 1 (T1), where domestic flights arrive and depart, at Tan Son Nhat Airport. Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), which operates the airport, has folded into its plan a renewal of the aging facilities and the construction of an underground tunnel linking the parking area and Terminal 3 (T3). The move looks ahead to a growing division of roles with Long Thanh International Airport, due to open within the year. For business travelers and tourists arriving in Ho Chi Minh City on domestic flights, it means that the flow of transfers and boarding procedures will change several years down the line.
The first thing to be clear on is that this is a separate matter from the 'international flights moving to Long Thanh' story. As for the international-flight transfer,Flights: International Departures from Ho Chi Minh City Moving to the New Long Thanh Airport 40 km Eastwas covered in, but this T1 rebuild is a separate topic: reworking the interior of the domestic terminal. Conflating the two leads to misreading how to move around the airport, so let's first keep them apart.
What’s being considered
What ACV is studying is a plan to build the domestic Terminal T1 entirely anew and, alongside it, dig an underground tunnel directly linking T1 and T3. The aims are to raise operating capacity, make passenger movement easier, and complete the airport's overall infrastructure. It also points to reducing the crossing of vehicles between terminals and smoothing transfers.
Behind it is the aging of T1. Years of use have worn the facility, and its layout no longer fits current operations. At peak times, check-in, security, and the pickup and drop-off areas have seen heavy congestion. On top of that, getting between T1 and the parking lot requires crossing an airport roadway, and there's no direct connecting passage between T1 and T3. The centerpiece of this project is to resolve that fragmentation with an underground tunnel.
Tan Son Nhat's Current State, by the Numbers
T1's capacity is put at roughly 15 million people a year, about 41,000 a day. Yet in peak periods it has swelled to around 100,000 a day, bearing loads that far exceed capacity. This overcrowding is the direct trigger for considering a rebuild.
| Terminal | Main use | Rough annual handling capacity |
|---|---|---|
| T1 (domestic) | Centered on VietJet | About 15 million people |
| T3 (domestic) | Vietnam Airlines and others relocate | About 20 million people |
T3, which opened on April 30, 2025, is a new terminal able to handle about 20 million passengers a year and 7,000 an hour at peak, and it was finished two months ahead of schedule. Vietnam Airlines, Pacific Airlines, Vasco, and Bamboo Airways moved their domestic operations there, leaving VietJet mainly at T1. With T3 in operation, Tan Son Nhat's total capacity is said to have widened to about 50 million passengers. This T1 rebuild is positioned as the finishing touch on that reorganization.
When and How It Will Be Decided
The investment size, design, and implementation schedule aren't fixed yet. The specifics will fall into place after the Ministry of Construction approves the revised airport master plan covering 2021–2030. In other words, it's at the "under study, with intent to proceed" stage; construction won't start tomorrow. This is a point to take in calmly.
The opening of T3 eased T1’s congestion somewhat, but structural inconveniences—the building’s age and its separation from parking—remain. Adding one new terminal isn’t enough; only by rebuilding the old side too will the airport’s overall flow come together—that is ACV’s read. In Ho Chi Minh City, where domestic demand keeps growing, adding capacity itself is the priority.
Meanwhile, on the Long Thanh side, work is moving toward opening within the year, andConnecting roads worth $456 million break ground all at onceis under way. The more Long Thanh is set up to absorb international flights, the easier it becomes for Tan Son Nhat to shift its focus to domestic and short- to medium-haul international routes. The T1 rebuild can be read as a plan premised on that division of roles.
What Ho Chi Minh City users should prepare for
For business travelers and tourists, the practical points are these. First, whether a domestic flight uses T1 or T3 changes where pickup cars can enter and how crowded security is. Since airlines are split across terminals, always confirm which one your booked flight departs from before you fly. It’s safest to assume that T1, centered on VietJet, and T3, used by Vietnam Airlines and others, are separate buildings.
Second, moving between T1 and the parking area and T3 now involves crossing roadways or taking detours. Once the tunnel is in place, transfers will be easier, but during construction the flow may change or become temporarily inconvenient. If you are scheduling a domestic-to-international connection out of Ho Chi Minh City, it is realistic to leave plenty of transfer time. On the capital side too,Hanoi's second airport enters the national planand with that, Vietnam's airports have entered a phase of transformation measured in years.
Summary
Rebuilding Tan Son Nhat's T1 is about using the opening of Long Thanh as a turning point to address the long-standing problems of aging facilities and overcrowding. The plan is still at the study stage, with its scale and timing awaiting a master-plan revision, but the direction is clear. Anyone using Ho Chi Minh City for domestic flights should, for now, check which terminal each flight departs from every time, and keep in the back of their mind that the airport's internal layout will be rebuilt over the next few years.
