The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) said in a report this week it is struggling to mobilize enough personnel to the sprawling construction site in Dong Nai Province, roughly 40 km east of Ho Chi Minh City. Only about 8,457 engineers and workers were on site as of mid-April, 60% of the 14,000 needed to keep to schedule.

Long Thanh broke ground in early 2021 on more than 5,000 hectares and carries a total approved investment of VND336.63 trillion (US$12.78 billion), making it the most expensive infrastructure project in Vietnamese history.

When open, it is designed to take over most international flights from the overloaded Tan Son Nhat airport in HCMC and handle up to 100 million passengers a year at full capacity, putting it among the largest airports in Southeast Asia.

The first phase is scheduled to be in commercial operation by the end of 2026. In late March, then-Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh tightened the target further during an on-site inspection, instructing ACV and contractors to finish construction in the third quarter so commercial flights could start in the fourth.

The labor shortfall is concentrated on the project’s critical path. At Package 5.10, which covers the 115-meter-tall passenger terminal that contractors describe as the airport’s “heart,” daily headcount averaged around 5,300 before Jan. 26 before collapsing to just 1,500. It has since recovered to about 3,400, still well short of the roughly 6,000 needed for construction and equipment installation.

A similar pattern has taken hold at Package 4.8, which covers internal airport roads and technical infrastructure: daily headcount has slipped from about 1,500 to 1,200, against a requirement of roughly 1,900. Thin staffing in design consultancy and supervision across several packages is also slowing quality sign-off and payment processing.

Contractors told ACV that delayed payments from the investor are the main reason crews are walking off. With fuel prices surging and input costs climbing, interrupted cash flow has put acute pressure on construction firms. One contractor said it was keeping pace with its contract but had redeployed workers to other sites as individual items finished. A busy construction market in southern Vietnam, offering higher wages on newer projects, has drawn workers away as well.

ACV said its own workforce is also being drained by competing infrastructure jobs nearby, including the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau expressway and the expansion of the HCMC – Long Thanh expressway, alongside other packages within the Long Thanh site itself. Heat and heavy dust at the construction site have made recruitment and retention harder still.

Fuel and materials price volatility has compounded the strain. ACV said the price of asphalt concrete is 40% to 50% higher than before, while equipment operating costs have jumped as fuel prices have nearly doubled. Diesel hit a record VND45,225 per liter in early April before easing to VND33,285 by mid-April, compared with around VND18,500 in mid-2025.

Around 2,500 pieces of heavy equipment, including excavators, bulldozers, rollers, cranes and concrete batching plants, are currently deployed on site. Cost pressures have pushed some contractors into the red on each shift, and a wait-and-see mood has crept in as firms hold off on intensive work until supply stabilizes or contract terms are adjusted. The project is also tangled in unresolved design questions, legal issues and payment bottlenecks. ACV has asked the government to direct ministries and local authorities to stabilize fuel and materials supply and to clear the outstanding obstacles.

Long Thanh is being built in three phases. After five years of construction, the Phase 1 items are gradually nearing completion. Within Phase 1, Component Project 3, which covers the runways, terminal and other core facilities, is the largest, with a contract value of more than VND86 trillion, of which some VND64 trillion, or around 74%, has been executed.

Component Projects 1, 2 and 4 are broadly on schedule. The administrative headquarters and the air traffic control tower are largely finished, and the tower’s technical systems went live late last year, handling the project’s first test landings safely.

Under ACV’s operations plan, international flights would gradually shift from Tan Son Nhat to Long Thanh from late 2026, with the goal of serving about 90% of the international passengers in the HCMC area by 2027.

The corporation this week opened its first round of recruitment for airport personnel.