Long Thanh Airport has a new target date: midnight on December 24. It is not a government decision. It is a proposal from ACV, made on the construction site itself during a working session on October 4, and it comes with a narrower scope than the previous plan. The useful question now is not "when will planes fly", but which conditions the December 24 date has to clear, and when each of them will be answered.
A 23-day delay and a smaller scope
At a working session with Phạm Gia Túc, Standing Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyễn Đức Hùng, Acting General Director of Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), said the airport is expected to begin commercial operations on December 24.Dân trí Vietstock, citing Đồng Nai Newspaper, describes this as a proposal to put part of the airport into service. ACV expects to submit a formal written report to the government and to brief the airlines.Vietstock
Only three days earlier, the target was still December 1. A Dân trí article on Long Thanh's service charges, published October 1, still gave December 1 as the expected start of commercial operations.Dân trí That is a 23-day slip. If the new date holds, Long Thanh's operating window in 2026 shrinks from 31 days to the last 8 days of the year.
The scope is narrower too. According to VnExpress, ACV plans to open only part of the central section and the west wing of the passenger terminal from midnight on December 24.VnExpress The cargo terminal, car park and internal roads will be finished in Q1 2027. On the cargo side, part of Cargo Terminal 1 will handle domestic freight from December 24, with international cargo starting in January 2027, excluding shipments to Europe and the US.
Where construction stands
Component Project 3, for which ACV is the investor, covers the passenger terminal, runway, aprons and technical infrastructure, with total capital of nearly VND 99,000 billion. According to Hùng, of the 16 main construction packages, 4 are 100% complete and 8 are on schedule.Dân trí Taken together, 12 of the 16 packages are broadly on track for a December opening.Vietstock
The remaining four deserve the closer look: the passenger terminal, the cargo terminal, internal roads and the car park. ACV says these are only partly complete but still sufficient for operations. The Ministry of Construction sees it differently. According to VnExpress, its on-site inspection found that all four packages risk missing their deadlines.VnExpress
Passenger terminal package 5.10, the largest of the group, has reached just over 77.37% of its contract value. Contractors are finishing the central section and west wing and installing check-in counters, baggage handling, security screening and jet bridges. Contractors on the critical-path packages include Vinaconex (VCG), CC1, Hancorp (HAN), Coteccons (CTD) and FECON (FCN).Người Quan sát
Why did the date move from December 1 to December 24? None of the October 4 reports cite an official reason. Two explanations fit the facts. The first is the construction site: the four packages the ministry flagged are all tied to the terminals, and the operating scope has been pulled back to exactly the part of the terminal that is most ready. The second is the trial schedule, which runs in three rounds into December and needs time to finish before passengers arrive. The two are not mutually exclusive, but the progress of the four packages is the part backed by the clearest numbers.
Three tests before December 24
Between now and year-end, the December 24 date has to clear three conditions, each with a specific deadline. Each one gives investors its own signal.
Test one: the report due by October 7
At the working session, the Standing Deputy Prime Minister instructed ACV to report, by October 7, a detailed plan for phased operations and the conditions needed to operate safely.VietnamPlus Phạm Minh Hà, Deputy Minister of Construction, also asked ACV to spell out which parts of the project can operate and when they will be finished. The report must also address whether ongoing construction will affect operations, and how security will work at an airport receiving passengers while thousands of workers move in and out of the site.Vietstock
Test two: trial operations in October and November
ACV has prepared 55 operating scenarios. The full trial programme runs in three rounds: round 1 in September and October, round 2 in November and round 3 in December. In November, ACV will run test flights with the airlines.VnExpress Only after the trials will ACV assess the risks and confirm the readiness of its systems, infrastructure and staff.Dân trí
Test three: the fuel-hydrant licence
The aviation fuel-hydrant system is expected to complete inspection and testing, and to apply for a licence from the Civil Aviation Authority, in November.Dân trí Put simply, an airport with a finished terminal but no permission to refuel aircraft still cannot handle a normal commercial schedule. This is the condition most easily overlooked in news coverage, yet it is technical and has a concrete date.
Alongside these three tests stands the Standing Deputy Prime Minister's own line: "If safety is not ensured and conditions are not met, there will be no flights."Dân trí That statement turns technical milestones into hard conditions. If one of them is missed, the opening date cannot be held by determination alone.
Scenario one: the December 24 date holds
This happens if the October 7 report settles the operating scope, the November trials and test flights pass, and the fuel-hydrant system is licensed in November.
Long Thanh would then start receiving passengers from midnight on December 24, at a small scale. The initial phase is expected to run about 30 flights a day, including 4 international routes, with the rest domestic. Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet have registered volumes equal to 6–10% of design capacity, up to 366 flights a week in total: 322 domestic and 44 international. Phase 1 runs from December 2026 to March 2027. In Phase 2, from April to October 2027, passenger volume is expected to rise to 50% of design capacity.VnExpress
For ACV shareholders, this scenario means 2026 contributes just 8 operating days at 6–10% of capacity. Whatever Long Thanh's operating revenue turns out to be, most of it will land from Q1 2027 onward. There are no figures yet to size it: it depends on which parts of the terminal open, how many flights actually move over and which airlines fly. ACV's report to the government and the airlines' published schedules will be the first two data points for an estimate.
There is one accounting detail worth noting. As a general principle, assets put into service move from construction in progress to fixed assets and start to be depreciated. A partial opening could therefore mean depreciation starting in phases. However, the Q2 2026 financial statement data for ACV that we were able to access does not break out Long Thanh's construction-in-progress balance, so this effect cannot yet be measured.
Scenario two: the date slips into 2027
This happens if any condition is missed. ACV's report may fail to show that the operating section is safe while construction continues. The November trials may uncover problems that cannot be fixed in time. Or the fuel-hydrant licence may not be granted on schedule.
December 24 already sits close to year-end, so a delay of just over a week would push the opening into 2027. In that case, Long Thanh would have no commercial operating days at all in 2026. For ACV shareholders, the start of operating revenue would be pushed back further, while assets stay in construction in progress for longer. For airlines, the December schedules registered for Long Thanh would have to be reshuffled. That is also why ACV wants to brief the airlines early, right after the working session.
How far southern travellers are affected
Under either scenario, most international travellers flying out of southern Vietnam over the year-end holidays will still go through Tan Son Nhat. Long Thanh's initial phase has only 4 international routes and about 30 flights a day, mostly domestic. The group to watch is passengers booked on the specific routes airlines have registered to open from Long Thanh in late December: their travel date and departure airport depend directly on which scenario plays out.
Signals to watch
On the evidence available, there is not yet enough to say whether December 24 will hold or slip. What is clear is that the date rests on three conditions with firm deadlines, and the first falls due within days. If ACV's report by October 7 spells out the operating scope and a security plan for running flights alongside construction, and the November trials and fuel-hydrant licence then both arrive on time, scenario one gains firmer ground. If November ends without a fuel-hydrant licence, that will be the clearest sign the opening is sliding into 2027.
For ACV shareholders, each upcoming news item on Long Thanh can be read through three questions: which part of the terminal is opening, how many flights are actually moving over, and whether the fuel-hydrant system has its licence yet.