Tan Son Nhat began in the early 1930s as a small airfield built by the French colonial administration on the outskirts of Saigon, gaining paved runways and scheduled services as Indochina's aviation grew.
Its place in history was sealed during the Vietnam War, when Tan Son Nhut Air Base became one of the busiest airfields on the planet in the late 1960s, thundering with military transports, fighters, and commercial flights side by side. The base was a focal point of the war's final days in April 1975, when evacuation flights departed under fire as Saigon fell.
After reunification the airport, its name now spelled Tan Son Nhat, became the gateway to Ho Chi Minh City and reopened gradually to international traffic as Vietnam's doi moi reforms took hold. A dedicated international terminal opened in 2007.
The airport, wrapped tightly by dense urban neighborhoods just a few kilometers from downtown, strained under the boom driven by Vietnam Airlines and fast-growing VietJet Air. A large new domestic Terminal 3 opened in 2025 to relieve the pressure. The enormous Long Thanh International Airport rises east of the city to take over long-haul flying later this decade.