Vietnam’s busiest airports handle over 300,000 passengers on final day of Tet, smashing all records

The figures, recorded on Feb. 22, the sixth day of the Lunar New Year and the final day of the nine-day Tet break, caught even airport planners off guard.

Tan Son Nhat had been forecast to handle a peak of 165,000 passengers a day during Tet. The actual number, 177,859 across 1,069 flights, blew past that estimate by more than 12,000 people.

The bulk of the surge came from arrivals. Around 540 inbound flights brought more than 104,700 passengers back to Ho Chi Minh City, most of them workers and students from northern and central provinces returning ahead of the first day back at offices and schools.

The city’s newest aviation facility, Terminal 3, which opened in 2025, carried the heaviest load, processing 454 domestic flights and nearly 68,000 passengers. Operations remained stable throughout, and roads around the airport were largely clear in the morning hours.

In Hanoi, Noi Bai International Airport set its own record with 124,546 passengers across 702 flights, the highest single-day total in the airport’s history. Of those, 75,709 flew on domestic routes and 48,837 on international ones.

Every one of the 98 check-in counters at the domestic terminal was in use, with backup counters on standby.

Expansion work at the international terminal, completed in late 2025, helped prevent bottlenecks on that side. Automated check-in kiosks, smart baggage drops and digital ID verification through the VNeID platform kept lines from building up.

Together, the two airports processed over 300,000 passengers on a single day.