Vietnam’s busiest aviation gateway is bracing for another record Tet. Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City is preparing to move more people, on more flights, in a more compressed window of time than ever before. For travelers planning to fly in or out of southern Vietnam for the Lunar New Year 2026, the coming weeks will test both the airport’s upgraded systems and passengers’ own readiness. Here is how the airport is gearing up for the rush, and what you need to know to navigate it smoothly.
A Record-Breaking Tet Rush in Numbers
The scale of this year’s Tet operation at Tan Son Nhat is unprecedented. Airport planners expect to handle around 940 flights per day during the core peak from February 14 to February 22, 2026, up roughly a quarter from the current average of 754 flights each day and about 7 percent higher than in the 2025 Tet season. That translates into a near-continuous flow of aircraft on the runways and taxiways.
On the ground, the human tide will be just as intense. Authorities forecast an average of about 145,000 passengers per day through Tan Son Nhat in the peak period. Of these, around 60,000 will be international travelers and 85,000 domestic, reflecting the continued strength of both outbound and homecoming traffic for the holiday. Compared with current daily volumes of about 120,000 passengers, that is an increase of roughly 20 percent.
The very busiest days on the calendar are expected to come just before and just after the Lunar New Year. The airport anticipates about 1,017 flights per day on February 13 and 14, the 26th and 27th days of the last lunar month, as people depart Ho Chi Minh City for hometowns and regional destinations. After the holiday, the rebound will be even stronger, with about 1,025 flights predicted on February 22 and 23 as travelers flood back into the city and through-traffic ramps up.
These projections follow consecutive years of growth. During Tet 2025, Tan Son Nhat already broke records, serving about 1.38 million passengers over the nine-day official holiday and handling up to 1,002 takeoffs and landings in a single day. Now, the airport is planning for even higher numbers, building on the experience of last year’s surge.
Inside the Operational Playbook: Slots, Night Flights and Ground Capacity
To squeeze more flights into an already congested airfield, Tan Son Nhat and the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam have reworked flight slot allocations and daily operating plans. Maximum capacity in peak periods has been lifted to about 940 movements per day, with up to around 1,017 or more on the heaviest days. In practice, this means shorter gaps between departures and arrivals, and a tighter, more demanding schedule for airlines and ground staff.
International traffic is set to account for about 340 flights per day, while domestic routes take roughly 600. This mix will keep both terminals running close to their limits, especially at peak times in the morning and late evening. To alleviate daytime crowding, airlines are being encouraged to boost night operations, using off-peak hours to add services on popular routes without further overloading the daytime schedule.
Ground operations have been tuned for speed and reliability. Turnaround times, the crucial minutes between an aircraft’s arrival and its next departure, have been cut significantly compared with pre-pandemic averages. Faster refueling, cleaning, catering and baggage handling allow the same fleet of aircraft to operate more flights per day, a critical advantage at a time when some Vietnamese carriers still face fleet constraints due to engine maintenance programs.
Airport managers are also coordinating closely with ground transport providers outside the terminal. Taxi firms, app-based ride services and public bus operators have been asked to increase capacity and keep vehicles in circulation during peak arrival waves. For travelers, this may still mean queues at the curb during the busiest hours, but it should reduce the kind of gridlock that has occasionally paralyzed access roads in past holiday seasons.
What Passengers Will Notice: Terminals, Technology and Security
For travelers, this Tet season at Tan Son Nhat will feel busier, but also somewhat more structured than previous years. Inside the terminals, passengers can expect a high density of flights on the departure boards, long but continuously moving check in lines, and increased use of technology in both processing and wayfinding.
Self-service check in has become a central piece of the airport’s congestion strategy. Airlines have been directed to expand the use of kiosks and online check in to divert passengers away from traditional counters. For many domestic routes and some international ones, passengers who have checked in online and travel with only carry on luggage will be able to bypass the longest queues, proceeding directly to security.
Security screening itself remains a potential bottleneck. To handle higher passenger volumes, the airport is deploying additional staff at checkpoints and promoting clearer lane separation for families, frequent flyers and passengers with special needs. Newer technologies, including more advanced scanning equipment and trial applications of biometric identification, are gradually being integrated to speed up processing while maintaining safety standards.
Travelers should also be ready for stricter crowd management rules within the terminal buildings. Authorities are actively urging passengers to limit the number of accompanying relatives who enter the departure hall, in an effort to unclog waiting areas and security approaches. On the arrivals side, designated pick up zones and holding areas for private vehicles and taxis are being more rigidly enforced to prevent jams at terminal exits.
Peak Days and Peak Pain Points: When Congestion Will Be Worst
Although the holiday travel period officially stretches across multiple weeks, congestion at Tan Son Nhat will not be evenly distributed. Historically, the most severe crowding has occurred on the last working days before the holiday and the first few days after, when most workers and students are in motion. The 2026 plan suggests a similar pattern, with February 13 and 14, as well as February 21 and 22, flagged as critical.
In the run up to Tet, flights from Ho Chi Minh City to northern and central provinces are already close to fully booked on many carriers. That will likely translate into heavy pressure on domestic departure halls in the afternoons and evenings of the final days before the New Year. Queues at airline counters, security checkpoints and boarding gates can stretch far longer than in normal weeks, especially where multiple flights to the same destination depart within short time windows.
After Tet, the traffic direction reverses, but the pressure does not ease. Large numbers of travelers returning to Ho Chi Minh City from across Vietnam, as well as those connecting through Tan Son Nhat to regional and international destinations, create intense peaks in the arrivals halls and baggage claim areas. It is during these days that the airport expects to serve over 165,000 passengers in a single 24 hour period, a significant step up from last year’s records.
Weather and air traffic conditions across the broader network can add variability on top of these structural peaks. Fog and low cloud cover at northern airports have, in past holiday seasons, caused knock on delays that rippled through the system, complicating schedules at Tan Son Nhat. Travelers should therefore build in buffers for onward connections and be prepared for the possibility of late arrivals, especially on flights touching northern Vietnam in the early morning or at night.
Practical Strategies: How to Survive the Tet Rush
In such a compressed and crowded environment, individual traveler behavior can make a significant difference. The first and most important strategy is time management. For domestic flights during the Tet peak, passengers should aim to arrive at the airport at least two hours before departure, and three hours in the case of international flights. On the busiest days and time bands, adding an extra 30 minutes can provide vital breathing space if check in or security lines become unexpectedly long.
Check in online at the earliest opportunity offered by your airline, usually 24 hours before departure, and download or print your boarding pass. This simple step can allow you to use dedicated bag drop counters or, if traveling light, proceed directly to security. For groups and families, completing seat selection and documentation checks before reaching the airport reduces the need for complex transactions at the counter, which slow lines for everyone.
Packaging your luggage with the Tet rush in mind also helps. Clearly label all bags with your name, contact information and destination, use sturdy tags and avoid last minute wrapping that might trigger additional security screening. Keep valuables and important documents in your carry on, and ensure that power banks, electronics and liquids are packed in accordance with aviation rules to avoid repacking at the checkpoint.
Finally, build flexibility into your ground transport arrangements. With arrival and departure times more vulnerable to delay during peak seasons, it is prudent to leave some margin between your scheduled landing and any onward commitments, such as bus departures or long distance trains. If friends or family are collecting you by car, encourage them to monitor flight status apps or airline notifications rather than arriving too early and queuing at the terminal curb.
What Airlines Are Doing: Fleet, Scheduling and Customer Service
Vietnamese airlines are under pressure to deliver more seats to match Tet demand, even as some aircraft remain sidelined by global engine inspections and maintenance requirements. To bridge the gap, carriers have added extra planes where possible and are using their existing fleets more intensively, relying on the shortened turnaround times and extended operating hours at major airports.
On core domestic routes such as Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, Da Nang and key provincial capitals, airlines have layered in additional flights in the late evening and early morning, when airport slots are more readily available. For travelers, this creates more options but can also mean flying at less comfortable hours. Night flights, though sometimes unpopular, play an important role in reducing daytime congestion at Tan Son Nhat and other busy airports.
Customer service teams are also being reinforced. Additional staff at check in, boarding gates and information counters aim to manage surging passenger queries and minimize confusion. Many carriers are promoting mobile apps as the fastest channel for schedule updates, gate changes and disruption management. During Tet 2025, some of the longest delays stemmed not only from late departures, but from poor communication at crowded gates; airlines are keen to avoid a repeat by improving information flow.
However, with aircraft utilization pushed close to maximum and traffic volumes at historic highs, travelers should still be prepared for the possibility of schedule changes and minor delays. Having a contingency plan, such as travel insurance that covers missed connections, can mitigate some of the financial and logistical risk associated with holiday flying at such times.
Looking Beyond This Tet: Capacity, Expansion and the Long View
The intense preparations at Tan Son Nhat for Tet 2026 fit into a broader story of Vietnam’s aviation growth and infrastructure strain. Over the full year 2025, the airport handled more than 42 million passengers, with both domestic and international segments expanding. Those numbers are close to, and in some periods exceed, the practical design capacity of the existing terminals and airfield layout.
In response, authorities and the Airports Corporation of Vietnam have been pursuing both short term operational fixes and longer term structural solutions. Short term measures include permanent increases in slot capacity at peak airports, technological upgrades at checkpoints, and the redistribution of some domestic operations between terminals to balance flows more evenly. These steps have helped to support record Tet volumes without systemic breakdowns, but they are ultimately limited by the physical constraints of the current site.
Longer term, the opening of the new Long Thanh International Airport and continued expansion projects at Tan Son Nhat are expected to relieve some of the seasonal pressure. New terminal capacity, additional gates and more efficient airside infrastructure should, in time, allow for a smoother Tet travel experience across the network. For now, however, those projects are still in stages of construction and commissioning, and travelers this year will continue to feel the legacy of earlier capacity limits.
Until those new facilities fully come online, Tet at Tan Son Nhat will remain a stress test for Vietnam’s aviation system. For many travelers, the holiday journey is as much a part of the New Year ritual as the family gatherings that follow. With careful planning by both the airport and its passengers, this year’s record breaking rush can be challenging yet manageable, turning what might otherwise be a chaotic crush into a demanding but navigable gateway to the celebrations ahead.