The roughly 40-km trip currently takes two to three hours under heavy congestion, a chronic problem on the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway and National Highways 1 and 51, the main routes between the city and the country's biggest-airport-to-be.
Long Thanh, a VND336.63 trillion (US$12.8 billion) project that broke ground in 2021 on more than 5,000 hectares in Dong Nai, is scheduled to begin commercial operations by the end of this year. Once fully operational, it is projected to handle around 80% of international passenger traffic for the HCMC area, relieving pressure on the overstretched Tan Son Nhat airport in the city center.
But its biggest obstacle has long been connectivity. Without faster routes into HCMC, Vietnam's flagship aviation project risks the isolation problem that has dogged airports built far from urban cores elsewhere in the world.
A cluster of road projects is now lining up to close that gap. The Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway has begun temporary operation on the section from the Long Thanh interchange to Vung Tau, and the entire route opens in May.
Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 is expected to be largely complete and in operation by June. The Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway is being accelerated to open in full by September. The existing Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway is being expanded from 4 to 8-10 lanes, with most components wrapping up by the end of 2026 and the gating Long Thanh Bridge section finishing in the second quarter of 2027.
