Last Friday, local officials announced further plans to expand Tan Son Nhat International Airport as part of an ongoing effort to ease passenger overcrowding.
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The recently approved proposal from the Ministry of Transport aims to put an eight-hectare addition onto the current airport, carried out over the next five years to the tune of VND6.4 trillion (US$283 million), reports Thanh Nien.
Once complete, the expansion will allow space for up to 82 planes, more than double the current number of parking spots available at Tan Son Nhat. Many other facilities, including passenger and goods terminals, will also be upgraded.
Expanding airport facilities has long been part of the conversation around Tan Son Nhat. Just a few months ago, Saigon's airport announced the start of a US$105.8 million project to increase the capacity of its international terminal, as the airport already suffers from overcrowding and has for a while. Though Tan Son Nhat's design capacity is 20 million passengers, the facility currently sees 22 million a year.
Since 2014, city officials have also pushed to fast track the construction of Long Thanh International Airport, a US$15.8 billion facility located roughly 50 kilometers from downtown Saigon. The project was approved at the start of the summer and is expected to serve 100 million passengers by the time it's complete in 2050.
Meanwhile, back at Ton Son Nhat, passenger numbers continue to climb. With the new expansion project, Saigon's airport aims to achieve the capacity to serve 25 million passengers by 2020, however some projections put the actual number of travelers coming through Tan Son Nhat as high as 40 million by that time.
[Photo via DHSaigon]
