Airports Corporation of Vietnam cut its workforce by 1,360 people in the third quarter, bringing total staff reductions this year to nearly 3,700. Financial statements show employee numbers dropped from over 10,800 at the start of the year to just over 7,110 at the end of September.
Personnel payments totaled more than VND2.63 trillion (US$101.92 million) in the first nine months, down roughly 13 percent compared to the same period last year. The reduction marked a third consecutive quarter of payroll contraction, helping to lower operating expenses.
The developer of Long Thanh International Airport restructured management earlier this year. An annual report published in April detailed that the company now maintains 12 departments under its board of directors and executive management, down from 17.
Restructuring administrative tiers
Management streamlining drove the bulk of the payroll reduction. In its annual corporate governance disclosures published in April, the state operator confirmed it collapsed its operational structure from 17 administrative departments down to 12 under the executive board. Leadership placed structural reorganization at the top of its governance priorities for the current fiscal cycle.
The administrative overhaul reduced fixed corporate overhead during a heavy infrastructure capital expenditure cycle. The group kept nine-month revenue steady at more than VND19.22 trillion, matching its performance from the prior-year period. Pre-tax profit came in at nearly VND10.8 trillion, slipping marginally from a year earlier yet surpassing the company’s full-year profit target ahead of schedule.
Mounting capital costs at Long Thanh
Capital deployed into the southern transport corridor continues to climb rapidly. Cumulative construction expenditure on the first phase of Long Thanh International Airport reached nearly VND44.13 trillion by the end of September, rising 29 percent from the start of the year.
Located in Dong Nai Province, the hub represents Vietnam’s largest aviation terminal development to date.
Commercial implications for travel retail
For concessionaires, airport retailers and transport operators, ACV’s leaner corporate structure signals tighter fiscal management as commercial tenders ramp up. Travel retail operators across Southeast Asia have eyed Long Thanh as the region’s most valuable emerging duty-free and terminal concessions prize. A smaller administrative hierarchy inside the master developer could speed commercial contracting decisions, yet it also concentrates operational authority into fewer oversight teams.
The primary execution risk shifts toward ground operations and staffing readiness. Trimming thousands of personnel while preparing to commission a greenfield hub with complex baggage, screening and retail zones demands flawless handover execution. If operating staff levels are cut too close to the bone, opening-phase terminal logistics and duty-free passenger flows could face initial bottlenecks.
From administrative reform to launch
The workforce contraction represents the culmination of a multi-year mandate to streamline state-owned enterprises across Vietnam’s transport sector. Earlier quarterly filings showed progressive staff declines through the first half of the year as redundant administrative layers were dissolved across provincial facilities.
Consolidating departments allowed the board to preserve operational margins even as domestic passenger growth normalized and construction billing peaked across southern job sites.
Operations at Long Thanh International Airport are scheduled to launch at midnight on Dec. 24, starting with approximately 366 weekly flights including 322 domestic services.
