On the morning of 3 May 2026, Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) issued a progress update following the 21 April review meeting: the commercial opening of Long Thanh International Airport Phase 1 has moved from "June 2026" to "within 2026." For investors tracking the project, this is not new bad news. It confirms what the market has known for some time but lacked a firm revised date for. Three of 15 construction packages are complete, 10 are on schedule, but the final two cover the passenger interface, the zone where travellers and aircraft actually meet.Bao Chinh phu
ACV's share price had already priced in this schedule risk before the announcement. From its peak of VND 60,400 on 22 January 2026, the stock declined steadily to VND 44,000 by the end of April, losing roughly 27% over three months. The question is no longer whether Long Thanh will be late, but by how long, and whether the two remaining packages can reach the finish line before year-end.
Two Packages Hold the Key to Operations
Component Project 3 has completed VND 64,313 billion out of VND 86,357 billion in signed contracts, reaching 74.47% of target.Bao Chinh phu Approximately VND 22,044 billion remains to be completed in the seven months left of 2026, a pace roughly twice the average rate achieved so far.
Among the unfinished work, two packages stand out as the real bottleneck. Package 5.10 (passenger terminal) must be completed by 31 August 2026, already two months behind the original June target.Bao Dong Nai The contractor consortium has deployed more than 3,600 workers and 1,000 pieces of equipment, with completed work exceeding VND 28,400 billion.VietnamPlus Structural concrete, the steel roof frame, and the glass curtain wall are essentially done. What remains is interior finishing and systems integration: baggage carousels, security checkpoints, check-in counters. This is the most time-consuming phase of any airport project because every system must be tested together before sign-off.
Package 4.8 (airfield road network) is the slower of the two. More than 2,000 workers are on site, but total completed value stands at only about VND 6,100 billion.VietnamPlus This package covers the taxiways from the runway to the aprons, the aircraft stands themselves, and the road network connecting the terminal to the airfield. Without it, a plane that lands has no clear path to park beside the gate.
Why Partial Operations Are Not an Option
An airport cannot open in sections. The runway is paved, the control tower is fitted out, and navigation systems are operational. But if the terminal lacks ICAO-certified security screening and functional baggage handling, commercial passengers cannot board or disembark. Equally, if the taxiway connecting runway to apron is not complete, an aircraft that lands has nowhere to park for passengers to leave the cabin.
The three completed packages cover foundational groundwork: earthmoving, ordnance clearance, and outer service roads. The 10 on-schedule packages cover most of the runway and ancillary infrastructure. The two remaining packages sit precisely at the point of contact between passengers, aircraft, and terminal. That is why Prime Minister-level direction has labelled Long Thanh's 2026 completion a "mandatory task."
ACV: How Much Schedule Risk Is Already Priced In
ACV continues to operate its existing airport network while Long Thanh is finished. In Q3 2025, net revenue reached VND 6,476 billion, up 15% year-on-year; net profit after tax reached VND 3,210 billion, up 37%.24HMoney That growth came from recovering international traffic at Tan Son Nhat, Noi Bai, and Da Nang. Long Thanh contributed nothing.
Once Phase 1 opens, Long Thanh is designed to serve 25 million passengers per year — roughly matching Tan Son Nhat's current capacity.Bao Dong Nai Non-aeronautical revenue — retail leasing, commercial services, car parks — typically carries margins two to three times higher than aircraft handling. This is the new revenue stream the market is pricing in, and it has not arrived yet.
At VND 44,000 per share, ACV sits roughly 27% below its 22 January 2026 peak of VND 60,400. That decline reflects two overlapping pressures: lower expectations for Long Thanh's timeline, and the structural liquidity discount of a UPCoM-listed stock. At this level, a significant portion of the schedule risk is priced in, but not all of it, because a slip into Q1 2027 remains an open variable.
Aviation Sector Divergence: Who the Market Is Backing
While ACV has fallen sharply from its yearly high, the airline stocks told a very different story in April 2026. Vietnam Airlines (HVN) moved sideways in the VND 22,500-22,600 range, while VietJet (VJC) recovered from VND 174,900 on 23 April to above VND 180,000 by month-end.
This divergence reflects how the market is categorising risk. For the airlines, Long Thanh represents additional capacity: new slot allocations, new international routes that Tan Son Nhat cannot accommodate due to congestion. If Long Thanh opens in 2026 — even not in June — the carriers still benefit materially in 2027. For ACV, the picture is more complex. Every delayed quarter is a quarter of Long Thanh non-aeronautical revenue that does not arrive, and the share price responds directly to each schedule revision.
At least two readings of this divergence exist. One is that the market is correct to separate ACV from VJC: ACV bears direct execution risk, VJC benefits indirectly and has already priced that in. The other is that VJC's April gains were driven partly by factors unrelated to Long Thanh — fuel prices, its AGM outcome, or short-term speculative flows — rather than purely as a signal on airport timing. Both readings are plausible; current data is insufficient to attribute the moves precisely.
May 4-8: Three Signals to Watch
First, ACV's price action at the opening session on 5 May (the first trading day after the public holiday). If the market reads the 3 May announcement as positive — confirmation of a 2026 timeline rather than a slip to 2027 — ACV may test the VND 45,000-46,000 range. If the stock continues to probe lower toward VND 42,000-43,000, the market is pricing in a higher probability of a Q4 2026 or later delay.
Second, any progress update from the Ministry of Construction or the next review meeting. The most recent review was 21 April; the cycle typically runs four to five weeks, putting the next update around late May or early June. If news emerges during 4-8 May about Package 4.8 hitting an internal milestone, that matters: it is currently the slowest of the two critical packages.
Third, foreign investor flows into HVN and VJC after the holiday break. If foreign funds return to net buying in the aviation sector, it signals conviction that Long Thanh will open within 2026. Concentrated net buying in VJC is worth particular attention, given the strong April recovery and the question of whether that momentum continues.
The official target of completing Long Thanh "within 2026" remains a commitment at the highest government level. The real question is whether Packages 5.10 and 4.8 have the resources and runway time to reach completion before December. The May progress update and this week's price action will be the next data points to answer that.