Of these, nearly 56,000 passengers departed from HCMC while the rest (89,000) were returning from other localities, according to data from the Southern Airports Authority as cited by Bao Giao Thong newspaper.
Thursday's figure broke the record made the previous day when 137,000 passengers passed through the airport.
The airport had 913 flights scheduled on Thursday.
In 2019, the year before the onset of the Covid pandemic, Tan Son Nhat welcomed around 130,000 passengers on a peak Tet day.
In a bid to relieve congestion during the holidays, there are now temporary parking lots at the airport's entrance so cars and taxis can enter and exit more easily.
The airport has been serving 36 million passengers a year since 2017, exceeding its designed capacity of 25 million a year by 2020.