Vietnam major airports battle overcrowding from return of tourist hordes

[HO CHI MINH CITY] WITH domestic and international tourists flocking to different parts of Vietnam in droves, the country’s airports are struggling to cope with crowd numbers that are nearly double their design capacity.

Vietnam’s largest and busiest airport, the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, has been besieged by complaints in recent months due to the congestion.

On Jan 26, the fifth day of the Tet holiday break, the airport had nearly 145,000 passengers – the most in a single day in its history. It has been catering to 36 million people a year since 2017, well surpassing its design capacity of 25 million passengers.