The massive project in Dong Nai Province will relieve pressure on Tan Son Nhat once completed.

Tuoi Tre reports that a groundbreaking ceremony for Long Thanh International Airport was held yesterday morning. The project's first phase will cost US$4.6 billion and is expected to be completed in 2025.

This stage will include a four-kilometer-long runway, taxiways, aprons, and a 373,000-square-meter terminal able to handle 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo annually.

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) is managing construction of Long Thanh, and the first step is to clear the airport's land of any potential unexploded ordnance. Work on actual infrastructure is set to begin in the third quarter of 2022.

Overall, Long Thanh will be built across three phases, and by 2040 it will have four runways and four terminals with a capacity of 100 million passengers and 5 million tons of cargo each year, making it the country's largest airport and, on paper, a competitor to regional hubs in Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. Once fully operational, officials expect that 80% of Long Thanh's passengers will be international, while Tan Son Nhat will largely handle domestic flights.

Reuters adds that Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc attended the groundbreaking ceremony and said: "The construction of the airport is an important step to boost public investment and reduce the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy."

Saigon's current airport has been operating above capacity years. A third terminal has been proposed for Tan Son Nhat, but it is not clear when work on an expansion would begin.

[Photo via Nha Dau Tu]