Vietnam is a long, thin country with big airports at both ends and several useful ones in between, so the flight you book shapes your trip more than almost anything else you'll pay for. Whether you're pricing flights to Da Nang for a week in Hoi An, weighing Hanoi against Ho Chi Minh City as a starting point, or wondering why a domestic ticket was cheap and the suitcase was not, the answers sit in the same place: who flies here, where they land, and what a fare includes. This guide covers the airlines operating in Vietnam right now, the six international gateways, the domestic network, and the baggage rules that quietly cost travelers real money.
Vietnam's Airlines in 2026: Who Flies and Who Just Stopped
Vietnam's airline list changed this month, and most of what you'll read online hasn't caught up. Six carriers are flying scheduled services as of August 2026, and one well-known name has just left the board.
| Carrier | Type | Domestic or International | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vietnam Airlines (VN) | Full service | Both | The largest full-service carrier, with more than 100 aircraft |
| VietJet (VJ) | Low cost | Both | The largest domestic share, with 121 aircraft as of September 2025 |
| VASCO (0V) | Regional turboprop | Domestic | A Vietnam Airlines subsidiary flying ATR 72s, and the only operator able to serve Con Dao |
| Pacific Airlines (BL) | Low cost | Domestic | 98% owned by Vietnam Airlines, running three A321s. A divestment was announced in June 2026 |
| Vietravel Airlines (VU) | Low cost | Domestic | Five aircraft. Now controlled by T&T Group, headquarters moved from Hue to Hanoi, with a rebrand pending and the new name not yet disclosed |
| Sun PhuQuoc Airways (9G) | Full service | Domestic | The newcomer. First commercial flight on 1 November 2025, 11 aircraft as of June 2026 and scaling toward 26 by the end of August 2026 |
The name to strike from your notes is Bamboo Airways. It halted scheduled flying, with its last scheduled service on 22 August 2026, and now operates charters only (Simple Flying). If a guide or an old itinerary tells you to compare Bamboo's fares on the Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City run, that advice expired this month.
The name to add is Sun PhuQuoc Airways, which almost nothing published in English mentions yet. It was licensed in June 2025, certificated that September, and started flying on 1 November 2025 with Phu Quoc to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City plus the Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City trunk route. Da Nang and Nha Trang to Phu Quoc followed in March 2026, Hanoi to Cam Ranh and Hai Phong in July 2026, and Hanoi to Da Lat and Buon Ma Thuot from 22 August 2026 (Vietnam News). If your trip involves Phu Quoc, check it.
Two more names circulate and shouldn't. Kite Air never launched, and Vietstar is a charter and business-jet operator rather than a scheduled airline, so neither will ever sell you a seat.
The Six Gateways: Where International Flights to Vietnam Land
Vietnam has plenty of airports, but international arrivals concentrate in six. These are the ones you'll actually be choosing between.
Tan Son Nhat (SGN): Ho Chi Minh City
The busiest airport in the country and the default southern gateway. It sits unusually close to the city, a short taxi ride from District 1 rather than an hour of expressway, which is a real advantage when you land tired. It also has the most complicated terminal arrangement in Vietnam, covered in its own section below.
Noi Bai (HAN): Hanoi
The northern gateway, and the right arrival point for the Red River Delta, Ha Long Bay, Sapa and Ha Giang. It's further out of town than Tan Son Nhat, so build in transfer time. Almost every domestic route in the country touches it.
Da Nang (DAD): Central Vietnam
The third international airport, and the one that has grown fastest in traveler mindshare, because it puts Hoi An, Hue, the Marble Mountains and the Hai Van Pass within reach without a domestic connection. If your trip is central Vietnam, flying in and out of Da Nang saves a travel day at each end.
Cam Ranh (CXR): Nha Trang and the South Central Coast
The airport for Nha Trang and the resorts along that stretch of coast. It takes international traffic in its own right, so a beach-first trip doesn't have to route through Ho Chi Minh City.
Phu Quoc (PQC): The Island
Phu Quoc is one of only two Vietnamese airports not run by state-owned ACV, the other being Van Don. Both are operated by Sun Group. The island now has its own home airline in Sun PhuQuoc Airways, which has thickened the domestic schedule considerably.
Van Don (VDO): Quang Ninh and Ha Long Bay
The newest and quietest of the six, and the closest airport to Ha Long Bay. International service is thin, so treat it as a bonus if a routing works rather than a plan to build around.
Choosing Your Gateway: Matching the Airport to Your Route
The most common flight mistake on a Vietnam trip is booking a return into the same airport you left from. The country is long and thin, and a round trip forces you to retrace it. An open-jaw ticket, in one end and out the other, is almost always the better shape and frequently costs the same.
Here is the honest view, by trip type:
- Two weeks or more, seeing the whole country. Fly into Noi Bai and out of Tan Son Nhat, or the reverse. You'll work down the coast without backtracking, on one or two domestic flights.
- A week, central Vietnam only. Da Nang both ways. Hoi An, Hue, My Son and the mountain passes sit inside a comfortable radius, and you skip two domestic legs.
- A short beach trip. Cam Ranh for Nha Trang, Phu Quoc for the island. Both take international flights, so there's no reason to lose a day to a connection through a big city.
- Ha Long Bay as the priority. Noi Bai is the reliable answer. Van Don is closer, but its international schedule is thin enough that you'd be building the trip around an airport rather than the other way around.
- Business in Ho Chi Minh City. Tan Son Nhat, and the proximity to the center is the point.
Still deciding how many days each region deserves? Our Vietnam itinerary guide sets out what fits into one week, two weeks and three. For the origin-by-origin view of routings from where you live, see our guide to getting to Vietnam from around the world.
Long-Haul Carriers: Who Flies to Vietnam From Your Region
Vietnam Airlines is the only Vietnamese carrier flying a meaningful long-haul network, and VietJet has pushed into medium and longer-haul international markets alongside it. Everything else arriving from outside Asia is a foreign airline connecting through its own hub, and the hub you choose matters more than the airline.
From North America. Nonstop service is rare, so plan on one long transpacific leg and one connection. The hubs that work are Seoul Incheon with Korean Air or Asiana Airlines, Taipei Taoyuan with China Airlines or EVA Air, Tokyo with Japan Airlines or ANA, and Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific. From the west coast, Singapore, Bangkok and Manila also work. Vietnam Airlines flies its own transpacific service into Ho Chi Minh City, which is the shortest version of this journey when the timings suit.
From Europe. Two patterns dominate. Vietnam Airlines operates nonstop services from a handful of European cities, which is the fastest option and usually not the cheapest. Otherwise you connect through a Gulf hub, Doha with Qatar Airways or Dubai with Emirates, or through an East Asian hub. Gulf connections tend to land in Vietnam early in the morning, which is worth knowing when you book the first hotel night.
From Australia and New Zealand. The easiest of the three. Nonstop services run from the major east coast cities to both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and the flying time is closer to a long domestic hop than a genuine long-haul slog. Where a nonstop doesn't exist, Singapore is the natural connection.
From within Asia. Everything is short. Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo and the Chinese mainland cities all have dense service into Tan Son Nhat and Noi Bai, and several reach Da Nang, Cam Ranh and Phu Quoc directly. This is where the low-cost carriers are strongest and where fares move most.
Long Thanh: The New Airport Opening in December 2026
Long Thanh International Airport, about 40 kilometers east of Ho Chi Minh City in Dong Nai province, is the biggest infrastructure project in Vietnamese aviation and it is nearly ready. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has proposed a commercial opening on 1 December 2026, with trial operations beginning in September (VnExpress).
What matters for your trip is what Long Thanh will and won't handle. Phase 1 covers long-haul international flights and cargo only. Tan Son Nhat keeps all domestic flights plus short and medium-haul international services, and only becomes primarily domestic after Phase 3, which is a post-2030 question (VietnamPlus).
⚠️ Do not assume your domestic connection moves to Long Thanh. If you fly into Vietnam from Europe or North America after December 2026 and connect onward to Da Nang, Phu Quoc or Nha Trang, that domestic flight still departs from Tan Son Nhat. It's a road transfer between two separate airports, not a terminal change, and it needs hours in your plan rather than minutes. Give yourself an overnight in Ho Chi Minh City if the timing is at all tight.
You'll see a three-letter code for Long Thanh quoted in various places. We're not printing one, because we couldn't verify it against a primary source, and a wrong airport code in a booking is expensive to unwind.
The Tan Son Nhat Terminal Trap: Domestic Does Not Mean Terminal 3
Tan Son Nhat opened Terminal 3 on 19 April 2025, a 20-million-passenger building that is now the largest domestic terminal in Vietnam. A great deal of published advice compressed that news into one sentence: all domestic flights use Terminal 3. That sentence is wrong, and acting on it will put you in the wrong building with a bag and a boarding pass.
Here is the actual arrangement. Vietnam Airlines moved its domestic flights to Terminal 3 on 17 May 2025, with three exceptions that stayed at Terminal 1: Con Dao, Rach Gia and Ca Mau. Pacific Airlines and VASCO never moved and remain at Terminal 1. And VietJet, despite early plans to use Terminal 3, shifted its domestic check-in to Terminal 1, Hall A, on 13 January 2026 (VietnamPlus).
⚠️ Check your terminal on the booking, not on a blog. VietJet carries the largest domestic share in Vietnam, so the single most likely domestic flight a visitor takes out of Ho Chi Minh City leaves from Terminal 1, not Terminal 3. Vietnam Airlines domestic is Terminal 3 unless you're headed to Con Dao, Rach Gia or Ca Mau. Pacific Airlines and VASCO are Terminal 1. International uses Terminal 2. Confirm on your airline's own booking confirmation before you tell a driver where to go.
The buildings sit on the same airport site and you can move between them, but it costs time you probably don't have, and Ho Chi Minh City traffic outside the perimeter does not reward improvisation.
The Domestic Network: 22 Airports and Roughly 55 Routes
Vietnam has 22 operational airports. Twenty are run by state-owned ACV and two by Sun Group, and roughly 20 of them carry scheduled domestic services across about 55 routes (Vietnam News). For a country this shape, that's a dense and genuinely useful network, and it's why flying beats driving for any journey longer than a few hundred kilometers.
It is also still growing. The plan is 32 airports by 2030, with seven new ones including Long Thanh, Gia Binh, Quang Tri, Phan Thiet, Sa Pa, Tho Chu and Thanh Son.
In practice, the network has a spine and some spurs. The spine is Hanoi to Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City, flown many times a day by several carriers, where fares are competitive and often startlingly cheap. The spurs run out to the islands and the highlands, to Phu Quoc, Con Dao, Da Lat, Buon Ma Thuot, Pleiku, Dien Bien and Quy Nhon, where schedules are thinner and fares move less.
⚠️ Con Dao is a special case, and it catches people out. VASCO is the only operator able to serve Con Dao, flying ATR 72 turboprops rather than jets. That means fewer seats and less slack when weather intervenes. It also means a carry-on limit of 7 kg rather than the 12 kg Vietnam Airlines allows in economy on jets, and the flight leaves Ho Chi Minh City from Terminal 1. Book it early and pack for the turboprop.
Where a domestic flight isn't the answer, the Reunification Express and the rest of the rail network covers the same spine overnight, and our guide to getting around Vietnam compares planes, trains and buses once you're in the country.
Domestic Flight Times: How Long Each Hop Takes
Vietnamese domestic flights are short, and the airport time usually exceeds the flying time. These are the durations and frequencies from Vietnam Airlines' own route information.
| Route | Nonstop Time | Flights Per Day |
|---|---|---|
| Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City | About 2 hours 10 minutes | 26 to 32 |
| Hanoi to Da Nang | About 1 hour 20 minutes | Around 20 |
| Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City | Under an hour | Frequent, all day |
| Ho Chi Minh City to Phu Quoc | About 1 hour | 4 to 7 |
Two readings of that table. First, with 26 to 32 daily flights on one carrier alone, a missed connection between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is an inconvenience rather than a lost day. Second, Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City takes less time than the taxi rides at either end, which is the argument for using Da Nang as a gateway in the first place.
Budget two hours at the airport for a domestic departure in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi and 90 minutes elsewhere, and add margin around Tet and the summer peak, when domestic terminals fill up in a way the schedule doesn't advertise. Our breakdown of how much a Vietnam trip costs puts domestic flights alongside everything else you'll pay for.
Baggage: Where Travelers Quietly Lose Money
This is the section that will save you the most money, and it's the one nobody reads before booking. The headline fare on a Vietnamese domestic flight is often trivial. The bag is not, and the gap between the two big carriers is enormous.
Vietnam Airlines includes checked baggage in every domestic economy fare. All three main economy fares, including the cheapest Economy Lite, carry one piece up to 23 kg. Premium Economy and Business get 32 kg. Carry-on in economy is 12 kg in total, one piece up to 10 kg plus an accessory, and 18 kg in Business. On the ATR 72 flights, meaning the VASCO routes to Con Dao, Ca Mau and Rach Gia, carry-on drops to 7 kg.
VietJet does not. Its fares work in tiers, and only the upper ones include a bag:
- Eco: 7 kg carry-on, no checked baggage
- Deluxe: 7 kg carry-on, 20 kg checked
- SkyBoss: 10 kg carry-on, 30 kg checked
- Business: 18 kg carry-on, 40 kg checked
Carry-on on VietJet is one main piece up to 56 by 36 by 23 centimeters plus a personal item, 7 kg in total. If you're on an Eco fare and you have a suitcase, you're buying an allowance. Domestic packages start at 20 kg and step in 10 kg increments, and prices depend entirely on when you buy.
| Package | Bought Within 24 Hours of Booking | Bought Later, Up to 3 Hours Before Departure |
|---|---|---|
| 20 kg | 200,000 VND | 250,000 VND |
| 30 kg | 300,000 VND | 360,000 VND |
| 40 kg | 400,000 VND | 480,000 VND |
| 50 kg | 550,000 VND | 660,000 VND |
⚠️ Buy the bag when you buy the ticket, not at the airport. At the check-in counter, VietJet charges 300,000 VND for the first 15 kg and 40,000 VND for every kilogram after that. So a 20 kg bag added at the airport costs 500,000 VND, against 200,000 VND for the same 20 kg added at booking. That's two and a half times the price for the identical suitcase, and it is the most common avoidable expense on a Vietnamese domestic flight.
So the comparison that matters is not the fare. It's the fare plus the bag. Vietnam Airlines Economy Lite, with 23 kg already included, is frequently cheaper than a VietJet Eco fare once the suitcase is added, and much cheaper than one where the suitcase is added at the counter. Pack light enough to stay inside 7 kg and Eco wins outright. Our Vietnam packing list is built around that trade-off.
One caution before you optimize too hard. Vietnam Airlines also sells an Economy Super Lite fare in booking classes P, A and G, and publishes no checked allowance for it. Do not assume 23 kg applies. Read the fare rules on that one specifically.
The Visa Connection: Your Entry Point and Your Ticket
Here's the paperwork point, stated once. Vietnam's eVisa is valid at 83 designated entry points, and only 17 of them are airports. The rest are 27 land border gates and 39 seaports (VietnamPlus). When you apply, you name the point where you plan to arrive, and the sensible thing is for that to be the airport printed on your ticket.
Two of those 17, Long Thanh and Gia Binh, count only once they're operational, so the usable number today is effectively 15. Every gateway in this guide is on the list, so Tan Son Nhat, Noi Bai, Da Nang, Cam Ranh, Phu Quoc and Van Don are all fine.
The sequence is simple: know which airport you're landing at, apply, then book the parts of the trip that can't be changed. Sorting the visa after the flights is how people end up paying for speed they could have avoided. Some nationalities enter Vietnam without a visa at all, and our eligibility checker is the fastest way to find out whether yours does.
A Few Parting Notes on Flying to Vietnam
Book the shape of the trip before the fare. An open-jaw ticket into Hanoi and out of Ho Chi Minh City, or a straight return into Da Nang, will do more for your two weeks than shaving a little off a routing that forces you to double back. The domestic network is cheap and frequent enough that the middle of the trip can stay flexible, but the two ends are worth deciding properly.
Watch the calendar as much as the price. Tet, the lunar new year, empties the cities and fills every domestic aircraft in the country, and the summer school holidays do the same to the beach routes. Both are bookable, and neither is cheap or forgiving of last-minute changes.
And treat published route maps as perishable. Bamboo Airways was a serious domestic carrier until this month. Sun PhuQuoc Airways did not exist two years ago. Tan Son Nhat's terminal assignments changed twice in eighteen months. Check your terminal on the airline's own booking confirmation, check the live schedule rather than an article for your route, and leave margin wherever an airport transfer is involved.
Do that and Vietnamese aviation is a pleasure to use. It's cheap, it's frequent, the airports are modern, and the country is small enough in the air that you can eat breakfast in Hanoi and swim off Phu Quoc the same afternoon.