Pleiku Airport (PXU): getting in, flying out

Booked a ticket to Pleiku? Three questions come up: where is the airport, where does it fly to, and when should you be there. This page follows that order, from landing to the flight home.

Just landed: where the airport is and how long it takes to get into town

Pleiku Airport is on 17/3 street, Thống Nhất ward, Gia Lai province. On your ticket and booking app you will see the code PXU, and locals often call the place Cù Hanh airport. Gia Lai also has Phù Cát airport, in Phù Cát commune. Make sure the code is PXU when you buy; a different code means a different airport.

The airport is about 5 to 6 km southwest of central Pleiku, and the drive into town takes about 10 to 15 minutes by car or taxi. Old news that puts it 3 km northeast beside Highway 14 predates the upgrade; ignore it.

Outside the terminal you have three ways into town. A hotel pick-up has to be booked ahead, and it is either free or priced by agreement beforehand. A taxi is quickest for a group or lots of luggage: a Let’s Go four-seater charges 16,000 VND for the first 2 km and 8,900 VND a km after that, so expect roughly 43,000 to 52,000 VND for the ride. A traditional motorbike taxi runs about 7,000 to 10,000 VND a km (prices from October 2026), which only makes sense alone with light luggage. Whichever you pick, agree the price or see it on the app first.

Heading on by road after you land? See coaches from Pleiku and Pleiku to Quy Nhơn; other ways to get around are in Getting around.

Flying out of Pleiku: where to and roughly what a ticket costs

The airport handles mainly domestic flights. The table below has flight times and fares. Hồ Chí Minh City flights vary between two and five a day, so check the timetable for your date on vietnamairlines.com or the airline’s app.

The fare column is only a marker, not what you will pay: prices change with booking time and seat availability. Vietjet also opened a daily route to Pleiku on 1 October 2015, so check each airline’s site or app for who flies what on your date.

When to get to the airport and what to bring

Vietnam Airlines recommends arriving about 90 to 120 minutes before departure to check in. The busy windows are 7 to 9 am and 2 to 4 pm, so for those flights take the full 120 minutes. The two-storey terminal has two boarding gates and was designed for 300 passengers at peak hour.

Inside there are check-in and waiting areas, a souvenir counter, toilets and security, and the baggage-claim counters sit close together. Seniors who buy discounted tickets on the Vietnam Airlines website check in at the airport counter.

Travelling with children? Bring the original birth certificate or a notarised copy. The terminal lists free wifi and free drinking water, but luggage trolleys and similar help are limited, so pack what you can carry yourself.

Gia Lai sometimes has fog or sudden showers in the early morning and late afternoon, so leave extra time for the first and last flights of the day, especially with a connection after.

How the airport has changed

If old news about Pleiku Airport shows very different numbers, the upgrades are why. The airport dates from the sixties and mainly served the military at first. A rebuild lengthened the runway to 2,400 m by 45 m; construction started on 28 September 2014, the airport closed during the works and reopened on 1 September 2015.

The runway is 09/27, 2,400 m long with an asphalt surface, long enough for mid-size aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and A321.

After landing: what to see around Pleiku

Biển Hồ Lake and Chư Đăng Ya volcano are the first places worth a trip from the airport, both north of the city: Biển Hồ Lake (T’Nưng lake) and Chư Đăng Ya volcano.

To contact the airport directly, its administration office is on 0269.3825.096 and vanthu.pxu@acv.vn. It is a records office, not a flight-information line; for flight times and ticket changes, ask the airline.