Flying into north Vietnam: what to expect
North Vietnam is not like the centre of the country, where a line of airports runs down the coast and you can hop between Hue, Da Nang, Quy Nhon and Nha Trang. Up here there is one dominant hub and four small airports that barely register. Mountains make airports expensive to build and hard to fill, and Hanoi already sits within a few hours of most of the region by road or rail, so there has never been much reason to add more.
The other thing worth knowing early: several of the north’s biggest destinations have no airport at all. Sapa, Ha Giang, Ninh Binh, Mai Chau, Pu Luong and Halong Bay itself are all reached by road or train from Hanoi or Hai Phong. That is not a problem to solve, it is simply how travel works here, and the drives are usually part of the trip rather than a chore.
| Airport | Serves | Code | International | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noi Bai | Hanoi | HAN | Yes | Almost every trip to the north |
| Cat Bi | Hai Phong | HPH | Yes, mostly regional | Halong Bay, Cat Ba, Hai Phong |
| Van Don | Quang Ninh | VDO | On paper | Very little at the moment |
| Dien Bien Phu | Dien Bien | DIN | No | Skipping the long drive northwest |
| Tho Xuan | Thanh Hoa | THD | No | Reaching Pu Luong from the south |
For the country as a whole, including the airports in the centre and south, see the airports in Vietnam guide.
Noi Bai International Airport, Hanoi (HAN)
This is the airport for north Vietnam. Around 90 percent of travellers heading to this part of the country arrive here, and unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise, this is where you should be flying.
Location and getting into the city
Noi Bai sits about 27 kilometres north of central Hanoi, across the Red River in Soc Son. The drive into the Old Quarter takes 40 to 50 minutes in normal traffic and closer to an hour and a half during the evening rush.
Your options in order of what most people should do:
- Grab or a booked car. Simplest, fixed price, no negotiation. Around 300,000 to 400,000 VND for a standard car. The Grab app is worth installing before you land.
- Hotel transfer. Slightly more expensive, but someone is standing there with your name, which is worth something after a long flight.
- Airport taxi. Fine if you use the official ranks. Agree the fare or insist on the meter before you get in.
- Public bus 86. About 45,000 VND to the Old Quarter, roughly an hour. Cheap and perfectly usable if you are travelling light.
Ignore anyone who approaches you inside the terminal offering a ride. The full breakdown is in Hanoi airport to the Old Quarter.
The airport itself
Two terminals, and they are very different. Terminal 2 handles international flights and is genuinely good: modern, bright, well signed in English, with decent food, plenty of seating and reliable free wifi. Terminal 1 handles domestic flights and shows its age. It works, but it is more crowded, the food options are worse and the seating fills up fast.
The terminals are about 500 metres apart with a free shuttle between them. If you are connecting from an international arrival to a domestic flight, allow more time than you think. You clear immigration and baggage in T2, then move to T1 and check in again, and two hours is comfortable while one is not.
Immigration queues at T2 can be long when several wide-bodies land together, particularly in the early morning. E-visa holders use the same lines as everyone else. There are ATMs and currency exchange in both terminals, and SIM card counters in arrivals, though buying a SIM or eSIM in advance usually works out cheaper.
More detail on the airport is in the Noi Bai airport guide.
Direct flights from Noi Bai
Noi Bai connects to roughly 80 destinations with more than 50 airlines, which makes it the second busiest airport in Vietnam after Ho Chi Minh City.
International flights
- Southeast Asia. Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Siem Reap, Manila, Jakarta. Multiple daily on the main routes, flight times 1.5 to 3.5 hours. Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, AirAsia and others.
- East Asia. Seoul, Busan, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Taipei, Hong Kong, plus a wide range of mainland Chinese cities including Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Kunming. This is the densest part of the network, with Seoul and Taipei served many times daily. Flight times 2 to 5 hours.
- Middle East and Europe. Doha, Dubai, Istanbul, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Moscow. Mostly daily or several times weekly. Qatar Airways, Emirates, Turkish Airlines, Vietnam Airlines and Lufthansa are the main operators. Flight times 7 to 13 hours.
- Australia. Sydney and Melbourne, several times weekly with Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet, around 9 hours.
- India. Delhi and Mumbai, several times weekly, roughly 5 hours.
There are no direct flights between Hanoi and North or South America. Everyone connects, usually through Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong or Doha.
Domestic flights
- Ho Chi Minh City. The busiest air route in the country and one of the busiest in the world. Departures roughly every 20 to 30 minutes through the day, about 2 hours 10 minutes.
- Da Nang. Very frequent, around 1 hour 20 minutes. The obvious link to Hoi An and Hue.
- Phu Quoc. Several daily, around 2 hours 15 minutes.
- Nha Trang (Cam Ranh). Several daily, around 1 hour 50 minutes.
- Da Lat. Several daily, around 1 hour 50 minutes.
- Hue, Quy Nhon, Dong Hoi, Chu Lai, Tuy Hoa, Pleiku, Buon Ma Thuot, Can Tho, Con Dao. Daily or near daily, mostly 1 to 2 hours.
- Dien Bien Phu. Daily, about 1 hour, and the only air link inside north Vietnam itself.
Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, Bamboo Airways, Pacific Airlines and Vietravel Airlines all operate domestically here, though route lists change more often than you would expect. Check current schedules before building a trip around any single flight.
Cat Bi International Airport, Hai Phong (HPH)
The north’s second airport, and the only one besides Noi Bai that most travellers have a real reason to use. Hai Phong is Vietnam’s third largest city, and Cat Bi sits close to both Halong Bay and the ferries to Cat Ba island.
Location and when to use it instead of Hanoi
Cat Bi is about 8 kilometres southeast of central Hai Phong, which makes it one of the easiest airports in Vietnam to get out of. Fifteen minutes and you are downtown.
The case for flying here comes down to driving time. From Cat Bi it is roughly 45 minutes to Halong on the expressway, against two and a half to three hours from Noi Bai. For Cat Ba it is around an hour to the ferry. If your trip starts on the coast rather than in Hanoi, that is half a day saved.
The case against is the network. International options from Cat Bi are limited and mostly regional, so unless you are coming from Korea or southern China you will need a connection anyway, and connecting through Hanoi to fly onward to Hai Phong makes little sense when the drive exists. For most people arriving from Europe, Australia or the Americas, Noi Bai remains the practical choice.
Where Cat Bi genuinely wins is domestic. If you are flying up from Ho Chi Minh City or Da Nang and heading straight to Halong Bay or Cat Ba, fly into Cat Bi and skip Hanoi entirely.
The airport itself
Small, modern and easy. There is a domestic terminal and a separate international terminal, and both are straightforward enough that you do not really need directions. The runway takes wide-bodies including the A330 and 787, so the constraint here is demand rather than infrastructure.
Facilities are basic but adequate: a handful of cafes and shops, ATMs, wifi, car rental desks and taxi ranks outside. Do not plan to spend time here, and do not count on a good meal before a flight. Check-in and security are quick, which is the main advantage over Noi Bai. An hour and a half before a domestic departure is plenty.
More on the airport itself is in the Cat Bi airport guide, and the city is covered in Hai Phong.
Direct flights from Cat Bi
Six airlines currently operate here, serving around a dozen destinations. Vietjet is the largest by a wide margin, with roughly 97 departures a week.
Domestic flights
- Ho Chi Minh City. By far the dominant route, with around 93 flights a week, so more than a dozen a day. About 2 hours. Vietjet, Vietnam Airlines and Pacific Airlines.
- Da Nang. Daily, around 1 hour 15 minutes. Vietjet.
- Nha Trang (Cam Ranh), Da Lat, Phu Quoc, Buon Ma Thuot, Pleiku, Con Dao. Anything from daily to a few times weekly, and these come and go. Several Hai Phong routes were suspended in April 2026, so treat any list as a starting point and check live schedules.
International flights
- Seoul (Incheon). The main international route, several times weekly.
- Chinese cities. Lijiang, Kunming, Shenzhen, Nanning and Chengdu, operated by Lucky Air, Ruili Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines and Qingdao Airlines. Frequencies vary from a few times weekly to seasonal.
- Bangkok. Operated seasonally and by low-cost carriers, so worth checking rather than assuming.
That is the honest picture: a genuinely useful domestic airport with a modest and somewhat unstable international side.
Van Don International Airport, Quang Ninh (VDO)
The most interesting airport in north Vietnam, and the one you are least likely to use. Van Don opened in 2018 as Vietnam’s first privately built airport, designed to bring travellers straight to Halong Bay without going through Hanoi. It is a good airport. It just does not have flights.
Location and the idea behind it
Van Don sits on Van Don island in Quang Ninh province, about 50 kilometres east of Halong city and roughly an hour by road. The logic was sound: Halong Bay is one of the most visited places in Vietnam, and sending every visitor on a three-hour transfer from Noi Bai was inefficient.
It also sits close to Bai Tu Long Bay and the Quan Lan and Co To islands, which is the quieter side of the region.
The airport itself
Genuinely impressive, and almost always empty. The terminal is modern, spacious and well designed, with a striking roof shaped after the sails of a Halong junk. Immigration is fast because there is no queue. Facilities are limited, with a small cafe and a shop or two, which is a fair reflection of the traffic.
If you do fly in, expect one of the calmest arrival experiences in Vietnam. If you are collecting someone, expect to be one of very few people waiting.
Current flights, and the honest verdict
Van Don has been through repeated rounds of route suspensions, and the most recent left it close to dormant.
Vietnam Airlines suspended the Ho Chi Minh City to Van Don route from 1 April 2026, a decision confirmed by Quang Ninh’s Department of Construction, with Jet A-1 fuel prices averaging 180 dollars a barrel and reduced import supply making the route impossible to cover. That came alongside six other domestic route suspensions, around 23 cancelled flights a week in total. Airlines have said routes may return when fuel prices and market conditions stabilise, but nothing has been committed.
International service has followed the same pattern. Van Don has hosted seasonal charters and scheduled routes to Korea and China at various points since opening, and they have repeatedly started and stopped.
So the verdict is blunt. Do not plan a trip around Van Don. Check whether anything is flying when you book, treat it as a bonus if there is, and default to Cat Bi or Noi Bai for Halong Bay. Full detail on the airport is in the Van Don airport guide.
Dien Bien Phu Airport, Dien Bien (DIN)
The smallest airport in this guide with a scheduled route, and the only one that flies within north Vietnam itself. It exists because Dien Bien Phu is a very long way from anywhere else.
Location and who actually uses it
The airport sits on the edge of Dien Bien Phu city, barely two kilometres from the centre, so you can be at your hotel ten minutes after landing. That is unusual in Vietnam and genuinely convenient.
Most passengers are Vietnamese, travelling for work or for the two events that fill the city: the ban flower season in spring and the anniversary of the 1954 battle on 7 May. Demand is noticeably seasonal, and airlines have adjusted schedules around it more than once.
For foreign travellers the value is simple. Hanoi to Dien Bien Phu by road is around 470 kilometres of mountain driving, which is ten to twelve hours by bus. The flight takes an hour. Fly one way and drive the other, and you get the whole northwest without covering the same ground twice.
The airport itself
Small in every sense. One terminal, a handful of check-in desks, a cafe, and not much else. Arrive an hour before departure and you will still be waiting.
The runway was extended and the terminal rebuilt in a project completed at the end of 2023, which allowed jets like the A320 and A321 to operate here for the first time. Before that it handled only turboprops. That upgrade is what makes the airport usable for anyone connecting from a long-haul flight.
Flights from Dien Bien Phu
- Hanoi. One airline, Vietnam Airlines, flying daily, around 1 hour. This is the only scheduled route.
There was a Ho Chi Minh City service, but it was suspended in April 2026 after demand dropped away outside the flower season. Nothing else operates here, and there are no international flights.
What that means practically: treat Dien Bien Phu as a one-route airport connected to Hanoi. It works well for that, and it opens up a northwest itinerary through Son La, Moc Chau or Lai Chau that would otherwise involve a brutal amount of driving. The city itself is covered in the Dien Bien Phu guide, and the spring bloom that fills these flights is in the ban flower festival.
Tho Xuan Airport, Thanh Hoa (THD)
The odd one out. Tho Xuan sits at the southern edge of what counts as north Vietnam, and for most trips it is irrelevant. For one specific journey it is the best option there is.
Location and the region it serves
The airport is in Tho Xuan, about 45 kilometres northwest of Thanh Hoa city, so the transfer takes around an hour. It shares the site with an air force base, which is why the runway is far better than the passenger numbers would justify.
Thanh Hoa province is where Pu Luong sits, and that is the reason this airport matters to travellers. From Tho Xuan it is roughly two hours to the Pu Luong valley, against four to four and a half hours from Hanoi.
That said, be realistic about the geography. If you are coming from Hanoi, you drive. Nobody flies Hanoi to Thanh Hoa, and no such route exists. Tho Xuan only helps if you are arriving from the south.
The airport itself
Basic. One small terminal, a few counters, a cafe and a waiting area. It handles A320 and A321 aircraft and has capacity for around two million passengers a year, which it does not come close to using.
Check-in and security take minutes. There is very little to do inside, so arriving early is a waste of time, and there is no meaningful food or shopping. Taxis wait outside for arrivals, but pre-booking a transfer is more reliable, particularly on late flights.
Flights from Tho Xuan
- Ho Chi Minh City. The one route that runs consistently, with daily flights, around 1 hour 45 minutes. Vietjet and Vietnam Airlines.
Tho Xuan has carried more than this in the past, including Da Nang, Da Lat, Buon Ma Thuot and Can Tho, plus occasional international charters to Thailand and Taiwan. Those have mostly gone. What remains is essentially a Ho Chi Minh City shuttle.
So the practical use is narrow but real: if you are travelling north from Ho Chi Minh City or the Mekong and heading straight for Pu Luong, flying into Tho Xuan saves you a day compared with routing through Hanoi. For everything else in the north, ignore it.
New and planned airports in north Vietnam
The airport map here is about to change, though not in the way most guides claim. One major project is genuinely being built, one famous project has stalled completely, and the rest exist only on paper.
Gia Binh International Airport, Bac Ninh
This is the real development, and almost nobody writing about travel in north Vietnam has caught up with it.
Gia Binh is being built in Bac Ninh province, roughly 40 kilometres east of Hanoi, on a site of nearly 2,000 hectares. Construction started in August 2025. The plan is for partial operation by the end of 2026, in time for Vietnam to host the APEC summit in 2027, with the first full phase running to 2030: two runways and capacity for around 30 million passengers a year. Later expansion would take it to four runways and 50 million.
For scale, that would make Gia Binh comparable to Noi Bai rather than a small regional field. It is designed as the second airport for the Hanoi region, taking pressure off Noi Bai and serving the industrial belt around Bac Ninh, and a new expressway is being built to connect it to Hanoi.
What it means for travellers is still unclear. Early operations will be limited and focused on official traffic, and a full international route network takes years to develop. Treat it as something to watch for trips from 2028 onward rather than something to plan around now.
Sapa Airport, Lao Cai
Here is where you should ignore what you read elsewhere.
Sapa airport was approved in 2021 and had a groundbreaking ceremony in March 2022, and countless articles have promised it would open in 2025 or 2026. As of early 2026, four years after that ceremony, the only thing built on the site is a resettlement area for relocated households. None of the main airport structures have been started, and the project still has no investor after repeated rounds of bidding.
Worth knowing too: the site is in Bao Ha, not Sapa. It is roughly 60 to 80 kilometres from Sapa town, so even when it opens you would still face a long mountain drive at the end.
Plan your trip as though this airport does not exist, because for now it does not. Getting to Sapa means Hanoi first, then train or road.
Lai Chau, Cao Bang and the rest
Both appear in Vietnam’s national airport master plan, and both are occasionally announced in local news. Neither is under construction, neither has confirmed funding, and given how Sapa has gone, neither is worth factoring into a trip in the next decade.
The same applies to various proposals for airports in Ha Giang and elsewhere in the far north. The mountains that make these places worth visiting are exactly what makes airports there difficult and expensive. Assume the north keeps its two working airports plus Gia Binh, and plan around roads and trains for everything else.
Practical tips for flying in north Vietnam
How to book domestic flights
Five airlines fly domestically here. Vietnam Airlines is the full-service option, with checked baggage included and better on-time performance. Vietjet is the cheapest and the most aggressive on extras, where a fare that looks like a bargain becomes ordinary once you add luggage and a seat. Bamboo Airways, Pacific Airlines and Vietravel Airlines sit somewhere between, with smaller networks.
Book directly with the airline where you can. Aggregators are useful for comparing, but if a flight is changed or cancelled, and that happens often enough to matter, dealing directly is far simpler than going through a third party.
Two timing points. Fares around Tet and the summer domestic holiday season rise steeply and sell out, so book those months ahead. And a domestic flight bought two months out is usually not much cheaper than one bought two weeks out, so there is no need to lock yourself in early outside peak periods. More detail is in the domestic flights in Vietnam guide.
Check schedules before you commit
Route lists in the north change more than in most countries, and 2026 made that obvious. Seven domestic routes were suspended in a single month, including the main link into Van Don and the Ho Chi Minh City service to Dien Bien Phu.
So treat any route list, including the one in this guide, as a picture of a moment rather than a fixed timetable. Before you build an itinerary around a specific flight, check it exists on the airline’s own site. And be careful with the small airports in particular, where a single suspended route can leave the airport with nothing at all.
Getting to Sapa, which has no airport
Fly to Hanoi, then choose between two good options.
The overnight train to Lao Cai takes around eight hours and saves you a hotel night, and the cabins on the tourist carriages are more comfortable than people expect. From Lao Cai station it is another hour by road up to Sapa. The alternative is the expressway by bus or private car, which takes five to six hours door to door from Hanoi.
Both are covered in Hanoi to Sapa, and the train itself in the sleeper train guide.
Getting to Ha Giang, which has no airport
Hanoi again, then road. It is roughly six to seven hours to Ha Giang city by sleeper bus or private car, and the sleeper buses run overnight so you arrive in the morning ready to start.
There is no train and no flight, and the airport occasionally discussed for the province is not being built. The options are laid out in Hanoi to Ha Giang.
Getting to Ninh Binh, which has no airport
The easiest of the three. Ninh Binh is under two hours from Hanoi by train, bus or car, and trains run several times a day from Hanoi station to Ninh Binh station.
Because it is so close, plenty of people visit as a day trip, though two nights does the area far more justice. See Hanoi to Ninh Binh.
Getting to Halong Bay
Cat Bi is the closest airport at around 45 minutes, but only if you happen to be flying there anyway. In practice most people arrive at Noi Bai and take the expressway, which is two and a half to three hours by shuttle or private car. Cruise companies usually include a transfer from Hanoi, and taking theirs is normally the simplest choice.
Van Don is closer still, and currently not a realistic option.
Other ways to get around north Vietnam
Flying inside the north rarely makes sense. Apart from the Hanoi to Dien Bien Phu route, there are no internal air links, and the distances are short enough that road and rail win on both time and cost once you count transfers.
Trains are the underrated option, particularly the overnight run to Lao Cai and the line east to Hai Phong. Private car with driver is the most flexible for mountain regions where public transport is thin. Sleeper buses are cheap and reach almost everywhere, with the trade-off in comfort. The full comparison is in how to get around north Vietnam.
