Passengers at Tan Son Nhat International Airport (Photo: VNA) HCMCity (VNS/VNA) - The Ministry of Transport has approved theaddition of a weather surveillance radar station to the detailed planto expand HCM City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport to both the north andsouth to serve 50 million passengers per year by 2030.
Under the adjusted plan, the Doppler Weather Radar station will be builton an area of 1,600 square metres to the north of the airport.A multi-storey car park will also be built, which will be connectedto a new passenger terminal to be built soon.
Under the plan, the airport will cover a total area of 791ha, an increase of250ha compared to the existing airport area of 545ha.
About 19ha of military defence land has been handed over for building aircraftparking aprons.
The additional land of 250ha includes 18ha of additional national defenceland, 35ha of land in the southern area, and 171ha of land in the northern areaof the airport.
An additional eight taxiways will be built to expedite aircraft take-offs andlandings.
At least 56 aprons will be added in front of the new passenger terminal T3 andin the southwest area of the airport, increasing the total number of aprons to106.
In the northern area of the airport, a reservoir with an advanced pumpingstation to prevent flooding will also be built.
In addition, roads connecting to the airport will be built as soon as possibleunder the city's transport plan.
To ensure the progress of the expansion plan, priority will be given to theconstruction of a new international terminal T3.
According to a proposal by the Airports Corporation of Vietnam(ACV), the third passenger terminal with a total investment of morethan 11.43 trillion VND (494.4 million USD) will be built in the south of theairport. ACV will invest in building the new terminal, using 100 percentof its corporate capital.
The existing passenger terminals T1 and T2 will be expanded to accommodate anadditional 30 million passengers per year by 2030.
The new terminal capable of handling 20 million passengers per year willtake 43 months to build, according to ACV.
In total, the airport is expected to have a total capacity of up to 50 millionpassengers per year by 2030.
Tan Son Nhat, the country’s busiest airport, has been seriously overloaded, bothon the ground and in the air for years, forcing many flights to wait in the airto land.
In a related issue, work began early this year on the Long Thanh InternationalAirport in the neighbouring province of Dong Nai, expected to ultimately handle60-70 million passengers per year. It’s expected to ease theoverloading at Tan Son Nhat airport.
However, the huge airport will not be completed until at least 2025 because of“a lack of capital and slow compensation progress,” experts have warned.
Tan Son Nhat will remain the main airport hub in the southern region evenafter Long Thanh airport becomes operational./.
VNA
