Simple way to calculate entry time at Tan Son Nhat or other airports
Tet is near, admin is often asked by friends about whether the airport at that day and time is crowded, whether to buy Fast Track, whether transit is quick, whether entry is quick.... of course it's not 100% accurate time or not but hope this article can help you travel lovers or overseas Vietnamese who are returning home to estimate the time you need for entry okay!
Since admin is in Ho Chi Minh, therefore admin will use Tan Son Nhat Airport to provide instructions to check this waiting time for everyone, other airports if you want then just message below okay!
How to know if at that landing time Tan Son Nhat Airport (or any) is crowded?
Usually to know how many people are entering at that time, admin usually goes to Flight Radar 24 (www.flightradar24.com) to search, just enter the airport code to search (For example SGN) and select Arrival Board and you have the list of flights landing right away
Then scroll down the entire list and see the time frame when planes are scheduled to land (For example 11:40 am)
Admin's experience is to look at the previous 30 minutes and the same time frame as mine how many international flights are scheduled to land, like admin sees that before admin's landing time from Korea there are 2 flights from China and Taiwan to VN already and even close to the time
Next then admin will click roughly on each flight to see what type of plane, for example before that are 2 BOEING 777 flights then determine it will take a long time to wait because on average each BOEING 777 has about 500 passengers, 2 flights are nearly 1000 passengers entering, haiz
Next is to roughly find out at Tan Son Nhat or the airport you need to go to how many entry counters there are, like Tan Son Nhat T2 has 44 counters, of course you will deduct about 7 8 counters for crew, for APEC diplomatic counters or VIP if any, and usually only 70 80% of counters are open then consider about 30 counters left, average 3-5 minutes per passenger, so simply each counter will process entry for 33 passengers
Click time roughly then 33* 3 to 5 minutes then already from 90 - 150 minutes
Therefore with admin's experience if seeing before my flight about 20 30 minutes there are 2 3 flights landing before that then determine will wait on average 40-90 minutes to get through the entry area especially during these peak holiday seasons!
If you want faster: Always register for Autogate procedure first okay to enter faster okay, only about 2 minutes if smooth and will be much faster and also more convenient if you are Vietnamese
In case traveling with elderly people, can consider Fast Track service to go faster through the crew or APEC counters okay
