Ho Chi Minh City’s unwelcoming airport bus

Tan Son Nhat International Airport’s Terminal 3 (T3) officially opened for commercial flights on April 17, 2025. The new terminal serves domestic flights for Vietnam Airlines, freeing up space for the rest of the domestic airlines at Terminal 1 (T1).

I had my first T3 experience with a domestic Vietnam Airlines flight in July. It was nice to arrive and have an airbridge to disembark from the plane. T1 has become so crowded that many domestic flights disembark on the tarmac.

I have not flown out of T3, so I will do a full review once I have experienced an arrival and departure.

As part of this review process, I thought I should use the airport bus from the new terminal. The airport bus goes to the bus terminal at Pham Ngu Lao (the backpacker area near the central market), so it’s a useful bus service for tourists.

The bad news is that the airport bus is an embarrassment to the city. The good news is that it is relatively easy to fix a bus service.

Terminal 3 overview

Tan Son Nhat is one of the busiest airports in Southeast Asia, but it’s on a relatively small parcel of land compared to other airports in the region. The city has grown around the airport, leaving no land for future expansion. This is why a second airport (Long Thanh International Airport) is being built in neighbouring Dong Nai province. The new airport is expected to open at the end of 2026.

In addition to building a second airport, a third terminal has been built at Tan Son Nhat to increase capacity.

One of the unavoidable problems with Terminal 3 is that it is not connected to Terminals 1 and 2. There was limited space to build the terminal, so there was no way to build the terminal next to the other terminals.

The satellite view of the terminals shows how restricted the airport was in building the third terminal.

There is no cheap or easy solution to connect the terminals. A people mover would involve a circuitous journey around the tarmac, an underground people mover would be expensive and disruptive to build, and a bridge would be tall and long like the sky bridge at Kuala Lumpur.

For now, Tan Son Nhat is stuck with using shuttle buses that go outside the airport to transport passengers between terminals.

Terminal 3 airport bus experience

Tan Son Nhat is my most frequently used airport in Southeast Asia, so I have a finely-tuned airport exit system when I am back in the city. I know where to go the get the non-dodgy taxi services or to get the airport bus.

Arriving at T3 for the first time was like arriving in a new airport, with all of the anxiety of finding the right bus stop while avoiding taxi touts.

Upon exiting the terminal, I was confused to discover that the arrivals section was on the first floor (arrivals at the other terminals are on the ground level).

There was a sign for “City Bus”, so that was a good first step.

I walked to the end of the terminal, and the signs stopped. I asked an attendant where to get the bus, and she pointed to the road that leads out of the airport and said to turn right on the main road. This seemed confusing to me, but she confirmed that it was outside.

I started walking towards the airport exit, but it didn’t feel right. There is a small sidewalk that follows the road, and it is open to the elements and has no step-free access.

I turned back towards the terminal, unsure that I was taking the right exit. The friendly terminal attendant saw me returning, and she probably read the confused look on my face. She confirmed that the airport bus stop was indeed outside on the road I was walking along.

I walked back out, and I was glad that I had booked an early flight, avoiding the probability of catching the afternoon rain that is common in the wet season.

There was a gaggle of Grab motorbike taxi riders outside the main exit, which made me wonder why there wasn’t a waiting area provided for them next to the terminal exit. Grab motorbikes are an accepted form of transport, and other airports in Vietnam have waiting areas for them.

I turned right onto the main road, as the attendant instructed. There was no bus shelter or even a sign saying “Airport Bus”. Thankfully, there was a bus waiting on the road when I arrived. I might have given up and got a taxi if the bus wasn’t there. The road was dirty, and there was nowhere that felt safe to wait.

This is the airport bus stop for the newest terminal of the largest airport in Vietnam.

Aside from the unwelcoming pedestrian exit from T3, the bus service going into the city is a good experience. It’s a modern electric bus, the ticket is 15,000 VND (0.57 USD), and it takes the most direct route into the city. It doesn’t stop anywhere else, so it is not much slower than a taxi.

I was the only passenger on the bus, which made sense when I found out about the new route structure.

The airport bus service is now worse after T3 opening

When I was on the bus, I saw a notice about the amended bus service.

The airport bus now only goes to Terminal 3. If you want to go from the city to Terminal 1 or 2, you must go to T3 and then get the shuttle bus to T1 or 2. The shuttle bus between terminals runs every 20 minutes, so it now takes more time to get to the other terminals, in addition to the extra friction of having to get another bus.

This is an unacceptable way to operate an airport bus service.

The airport bus should be in front of the airport arrivals

Having the airport bus stop at all of the terminals would be too much of a hassle, considering that the bus has to go back out onto the public road.

This is the problem that Hanoi has with its bus service. The terminals of Noi Bai International Airport are too far apart to walk to, but the airport bus to the city goes to both terminals. I use the airport bus in Hanoi (I always try and use public transport in the interest of studying transport systems), and it’s annoying when the bus goes to the next terminal to pick up more passengers.

I’m shocked that a parking space for public buses wasn’t provided for T3, or that they are electing not to use it. Either way, I think it would make more sense to revert the bus back to T2 (International), and then passengers can either walk to T1 or get a shuttle to T3.

Get the bus services right for both airports

Considering that T3 is a new terminal, public bus transport should have been integrated into the terminal infrastructure. This lack of planning for something as simple as a bus service is not a good sign for the new airport.

Long Thanh International Airport is about 40 km east of the city centre, and the proposed airport rail link hasn’t even begun construction. It could take hours to get from the airport during peak hours, so it is alarming that such a big airport that is so far away from the city centre will not have an airport rail link when it opens.

I recently wrote about improving bus services between Da Nang and Hoi An. A metro system for Da Nang is being talked about, but cities should begin by designing efficient and user-friendly bus services first before dreaming about rail transit systems.

A metro line is planned for Tan Son Nhat (Line 4B), and Long Thanh International Airport will need an airport rail link. These lines are years away from becoming reality, so both airports should endeavour to create a frequent and welcoming bus service while we wait for the airport rail links.