Skip to content How far is Long Thanh airport from Ho Chi Minh City?
Long Thanh International Airport (LTH) is about 40 km east of the centre of Ho Chi Minh City, in Long Thanh, Dong Nai province. The drive to District 1 is around 43–45 km and takes a private car 1 to 1½ hours on a clear run, up to 2 hours at rush hour. Commercial flights are expected from about 1 December 2026, with Tan Son Nhat (SGN) staying open alongside it.
If you’ve only flown into Saigon before, the shape of the trip is different. Tan Son Nhat is inside the city and 6–8 km from most hotels. Long Thanh is outside it, beside the expressway, so most of the journey is fast motorway followed by a slow last stretch.
The road from Long Thanh to District 1
The car leaves the airport on its access road and joins the Ho Chi Minh City–Long Thanh–Dau Giay expressway, heading west. The expressway runs to the An Phu interchange in Thu Duc, where the city starts. From there it’s city streets over the Thu Thiem bridge or tunnel to District 1, or on to Binh Thanh, District 3 and the other central districts.
What decides the time is where you meet the city. A midday arrival on a weekday is usually 60–75 minutes. Between about 4:30 and 7:30 pm, and on Friday evenings, the last 10 km can take as long as the first 35. A late arrival after 10 pm is often under an hour.
For Thao Dien, Thu Duc and the eastern districts the drive is shorter, because you leave the expressway earlier. District 7 is the opposite: you cross most of the city, so allow longer than for District 1.
The Ben Luc–Long Thanh expressway, fully open since 1 October 2026, links the airport to the south and the Mekong Delta without going through the city. It matters more for the Delta than for Saigon, but it’s one reason this airport suits people heading out of town.
Long Thanh or Tan Son Nhat for a city hotel?
For a hotel in the city, Tan Son Nhat is the better airport, because it is so much closer. If your flight is going to Long Thanh, you’ll have no choice, and the trip is a fixed price by car.
The airport operator’s plan, as reported in July 2026, moves flights in three stages. From 1 December 2026 to 27 March 2027, Long Thanh takes cargo and new international routes by Vietnamese airlines, and Tan Son Nhat keeps its existing international network. From 28 March 2027, long-haul flights to Europe, the Americas, Oceania, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia are due to move. From 31 October 2027, nearly all international flying moves, except short routes of under 1,000 km by Vietnamese carriers. Plans like this change, so go by the airport code on your ticket, not by the date.
Our Tan Son Nhat page covers pickups at the old airport. If you’re not sure which one your flight uses, check the three-letter code on the ticket: LTH for Long Thanh, SGN for Tan Son Nhat.
Taxi, bus or private car from Long Thanh to Saigon?
A booked private car is the sensible choice for most people, and a bus is the sensible choice for a solo traveller on a tight budget. The table above puts the options side by side.
Metered taxis are expected at the kerb, but the airport hasn’t handled regular traffic yet, so queues and prices are an estimate. A taxi or ride-hailing car is a lottery on the car: you don’t know the driver, whether the cabin smells of cigarettes, whether the seatbelts work, or whether the suspension has gone.
A bus is cheap. HCMC’s transport department has proposed 17 routes to the airport, 13 new and 4 changed, but at the time of writing the stops and timetables aren’t final. After a long flight, a bus that drops you at a stop and leaves you to find another ride to the hotel is hard work with luggage. The train is not an option yet.
With a booked car, the price is agreed before you leave home. You know who’s driving, the driver tracks your flight, and you get 90 minutes of free waiting after landing, which covers queues at a new airport. We hold our drivers to one standard: non-smoking cars, working seatbelts, no heavy air freshener, a cabin filter that’s changed, and calm driving without leaning on the horn. Child seats are available on request when you book.
Which car for the drive to the city
A sedan or electric VinFast suits two or three people with normal luggage. A family of four or five, especially a tall one, or anyone with big cases, a pram or golf bags, should take a 7-seater. The VinFast is comfortable but compact: five people with five suitcases do not fit.
Groups can book a limousine van or 16-seater. They carry more and cost more per car, though per person they can work out cheaper.
Meeting your driver at Long Thanh
The airport has a single passenger terminal in its first phase, and the arrivals layout and the official pickup area haven’t been published in detail. We’ll send the exact meeting point once we know it, and then drivers meet you in the arrivals hall holding a sign with your name on it.
- Book in the box above and put your flight number in the notes.
- The evening before, you receive the driver’s name, photo and number plate.
- The driver tracks your flight and waits up to 90 minutes after landing.
- You pay the driver at the hotel, in Vietnamese dong or by VietQR. Tolls are in the price.
If your flight lands at 1 am, it’s still fine to book. A night surcharge applies between 22:00 and 06:00, and it’s shown before you pay.
Fast-track immigration is a Tan Son Nhat add-on today, and we’ll offer it at Long Thanh if the airport does. A SIM or eSIM can be waiting in the car.
Going back to the airport, and honest limits
Going back to Long Thanh from the city takes longer than most people think. For an international flight, leave about 4½ hours before departure from central Saigon, which allows for a 1 to 2 hour drive and a new airport. On a Friday or before a public holiday, allow more.
The honest limits are traffic, the opening date and the rail link. Rush-hour traffic on the city side can add 30 minutes or more to any vehicle. Tet, the Lunar New Year (early February in 2027), is the other time to avoid if you can. The date has moved before, and we’ll contact you to move or cancel a booking if it moves again. The metro and rail link would change the picture, but it isn’t built.
For the coast, the picture is better. Long Thanh sits on the way to the beaches: our pages cover the drive from the airport to Vung Tau and Ho Tram, and the Long Thanh airport overview has the rest.
Stops worth asking for
- An Phu interchange (Thu Duc): Where the expressway from Long Thanh meets the city. This is the point where the drive turns from fast to slow, so it's the best place to judge how long the rest will take.
- Thu Thiem and the Saigon river crossings: Hotels in District 1 are reached over the Thu Thiem bridge or tunnel. Your driver picks whichever is moving.