HCMC airport running out of space
Tan Son Nhat International Airport will undergo an urgent expansion to increase annual handling capacity to 48 million passengers spread over four terminals that should be fully operational by 2021.
Saigon Times media reported that Deputy Prime Minister, Trinh Dinh Dung, has urged relevant ministries, agencies, and Ho Chi Minh City authorities to support a comprehensive plan to expand the airport.
The plan includes adding aircraft parking slots, taxiways, runways and two terminals, as well as improving the air traffic management system and roads connecting the airport to the city centre.
inside no 1Airport parking spaces can only handle half of the present flow of cars picking up and dropping off passengers. The main roads around the airport are also heavily congested, the report said.
The government has assigned land that was used by the military for an additional runway, allowing the airport to gradually increase capacity to 38 million passengers per year by 2019, Tuoi Tre News reported.
The current T2 terminal will also be expanded to accommodate 3 million additional passengers, raising capacity of the two terminals (T1 and T2) to 28 million.
Another 21-hectare area of military land will be handed over to the Ministry of Transport to expand Tan Son Nhat’s current jet parking space and allow for up to 96 planes to park at any one time.
Construction of a new terminal (T3) with a capacity of 10 million passengers per year is expected to commence during the first quarter of 2017 and should be completed by 2019. Upon completion, the three terminals of Tan Son Nhat airport will boast capacity to 38 million passengers a year.
A plan is also taking shape to build a fourth terminal, to serve another 10 million passengers per year, raising Tan Son Nhat’s overall capacity to 48 million by 2021.
Tan Son Nhat, the nation’s busiest airport, is designed to accommodate 25 million passengers a year, a capacity ceiling that was surpassed last year when it handled 32 million passengers.
Civil aviation authorities estimate the country’s airports served 87 million passengers last year. That figure will rise another 10% to 15% this year.
Source: http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2017/01/hcmc-airport-running-out-of-space/
