Option 1, Long Thanh airport will receive 100% of international flights, while Tan Son Nhat airport will serve domestic flights.
Option 2, Tan Son Nhat airport will operate domestic flights and part of short-haul international flights, accounting for about 20% of total international traffic.
Many opinions criticized, commented, and proposed very responsibly related to how to operate Long Thanh airport to be most effective.
The concern and also the obvious reality is that the connecting routes from Ho Chi Minh City to Long Thanh are all unfinished, without ensuring the stability of the time for passengers to take flights.
With the current traffic situation, passengers in Ho Chi Minh City going to Long Thanh airport must leave half a day in advance to prevent traffic jams.
If exploited according to option 1, international visitors to Long Thanh airport, moving to Tan Son Nhat airport to connect to the domestic route, will not be a very friendly experience.
To transfer a flight, having to take a long distance and causing traffic chaos as it is now is something that no passenger wants.
Just imagine, flights from Japan or Korea to Long Thanh airport, many passengers on these flights switch to domestic flights to different tourist destinations, they have to travel to Tan Son Nhat airport on a arduous and "heartbreaking" journey because they are afraid of flight delays.
So whether international tourists want to return to Vietnam again or not, the answer is very clear.
To remove the current infrastructure bottleneck, in addition to expanding the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh expressway and the Cat Lai bridge construction project, experts are considering the railway solution.
The Ministry of Construction proposed that the Prime Minister assign the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to be the investor of the Thu Thiem - Long Thanh railway project to transport passengers from Tan Son Nhat airport to Long Thanh airport.
At the same time, it is proposed that the Government consider and approve the addition of this railway line to the list of projects applying the special mechanism of Resolution 188 of the National Assembly.
This is a transportation solution to connect safely and stably between the center of Ho Chi Minh City and Long Thanh airport.
But Long Thanh airport will be inaugurated by the end of this year, putting into operation the first runway next year, while the connection options are mainly on paper.
All solutions for infrastructure connecting Ho Chi Minh City to Long Thanh airport are very convincing, the problem is that it needs to be implemented and completed early to put into operation.
These infrastructure projects not only serve passengers going to airports, but are also related to tourism development and are the national face in the integration period.
