Some time ago, we featured an article pointing out the need for many countries to step things up when it comes to their airports.
Along with infrastructural and security issues, we cited the way congestion challenged the patience and endurance of many foreign arrivals.
As we put it: “For the most part, congestion is one of the biggest issues plaguing contemporary airports: the massive influx of travellers in the post-pandemic era tends to lead to long queues to various processes which, in principle, ought to take but five to ten minutes of a traveller's time.”
Travellers making their way to Vietnam, undoubtedly one of the most popular destinations for many travellers from Asia and beyond, have found themselves stressed almost as soon as they arrive in the country, mostly by congestion and inefficiencies seen and experienced at the country’s main points of entry.
One traveller opined on global sounding board Reddit: “[Travelling to Ho Chi Minh City] is made very unpleasant because of its airport [Tan Son Nhat]. Queues are insanely long and slow moving; I don't see any staff around to regulate the crowd, so some people are queue cutting and some others don't realize there is a whole other shorter queue on the other side. How can such a fun country that has so much to offer have such a horrible onboarding experience? Why is this allowed to continue to happen? It's such a shame and it doesn't look like they are doing anything about it.”
Thus, this begs a question: is Vietnam doing anything to alleviate the airport situation in both its major cities and emergent destinations?
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The quick answer is yes: Vietnam is currently building new airports whilst extensively refurbishing existing ones.
For example, the Long Thanh International Airport in the southern suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City is expected to transform Vietnamese tourism when it opens towards the end of this year.
The opening of Long Thanh seeks to break the country's severe aviation capacity bottleneck whilst unlocking luxury, regional, and secondary travel markets.
This is important, especially given how Vietnam stands as a rising tourism powerhouse in Southeast Asia, and more aggressive aviation expansion is the key driver that could further push the ongoing shift in terms of regional travel power.
We should also point out at this point that these new international facilities will allow the world’s largest commercial aircraft to fly direct, long-haul routes from Europe, North America, and Australia without requiring regional transfers
But for this to come to pass, Vietnam needs to address a number of major infrastructural and operational issues with regard to civil aviation.
What Vietnam needs to work on
Those who have travelled to Vietnam in recent years report that main gateways like Tan Son Nhat and Nội Bài International Airport up north in Hanoi are operating drastically over their intended capacities
This has resulted in serious flight delays along with protracted passenger processing where a procedure that could take minutes could take some hours due to massive queues and not enough officials at counters.
It is expected that the first phase of Long Thanh International Airport will considerably alleviate the more adverse effects as it can handle 100 million passengers annually once it’s fully operational, but that won’t be for a while yet.
Beyond major cities
As Vietnam’s star rises in the tourism scene, it is opening the doors to destinations other than Hanoi and HCMC.
In order to get foreign travellers to emergent destinations like Phu Quoc and Da Nang faster, new airports made possible by global partnerships are set to open their doors.
The one in Phu Quoc, for example; backed by a high-profile partnership with Singapore's Changi Airports International, the massive expansion hub rising there stands to process up to 18 million passengers by 2027.
Having its own airport is key to the area’s growth as a tourist destination, especially as the Sun Group is keen to turn it into a resort destination to rival Bali, Indonesia.
Innovation and reclamation are also fuelling Vietnam’s airport infrastructure boom as seen in the development of Van Phong Airport near the resort city of Nha Trang.
Van Phong will be the country’s first airport built on reclaimed land and is expected to open up Vietnam’s Central Highlands and the Khanh Hoa coastal zones to millions of new marine logistics and leisure travellers.
