Vietnam Airlines alone accounted for about 64 of those flights and more than 10,000 of the affected passengers, all on domestic routes.

Fifteen flights bound for Ho Chi Minh City and 15 scheduled to leave it were held, while about 14 aircraft circled or diverted to alternate airports during the suspensions.

Roughly 20 other Vietnam Airlines flights were caught in the knock-on from the night of Aug. 11 into the morning of Aug. 12.

Vietjet, Sun PhuQuoc Airways and several other carriers reported about 26 flights affected, involving thousands more passengers.

Tan Son Nhat's approach control center counted 73 flights directly affected across the two hours the airport was disrupted, before downstream delays.

The Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) put the figure at 19 for the narrower window between 6:14 and 7:14 p.m., when departures were held on the ground.

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam is working with the Ho Chi Minh City Military Command and police units to trace where the drones came from at the country's busiest airport.

Passengers watch delayed arrival and departure boards during the drone incident at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Aug. 11, 2026. Photo by VnExpress/Dinh Van

At 5:34 p.m. on Aug. 11 the control tower received a report from the crew of Vietjet flight VJ601, inbound from Cam Ranh, that they had sighted a drone on approach, about 16 km (10 miles) out at 3,000 feet, or roughly 900 m.

The aircraft landed on runway 25L four minutes later.

At 6:14 p.m. the pilot of a Boeing 777 that had just departed the same runway reported a drone roughly 500 m off the aircraft's right side, at 1,800 feet.

The airport activated its drone response plan and suspended all takeoffs and landings, with seven departures already waiting to leave. Operations resumed at 7:16 p.m.

At 7:34 p.m. the tower reported a drone west-southwest of the airport. Tan Son Nhat halted all arrivals and departures a second time and reopened at 8:34 p.m.

The drone was the first to enter Tan Son Nhat's restricted airspace, VATM said, an area that under a 2020 government decision extends at least 15 km from the runway centerline and 5,000 m to either side, at all altitudes.

From about 6:25 p.m., air traffic flow coordinators suspended flights bound for Tan Son Nhat from other airports, held aircraft on the ground and resequenced departures.

During the second incursion VATM widened those restrictions to more airports, in Vietnam and abroad.

Tan Son Nhat handled more than 42.4 million passengers on 255,376 flights in 2025, the most of any airport in Vietnam. Traffic there peaked at over 177,000 passengers on 1,069 flights on Feb. 22 this year, the busiest day in the airport's history.