HCMC airport repairs taxiway

HO CHI MINH CITY  Maintenance work at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport will start 10 April and be completed by 30 June, according to Airports Corporation of Vietnam chairman, Nguyen Nguyen Hung.
He was responding to unconfirmed reports in travel trade circles that airline services would face delays and disruptions due to airport maintenance work.
“Repair work will upgrade both the taxiway and apron at the country’s largest airport,” he told local media, Wednesday.
The maintenance work will coincide with the national holiday, 28 April to 3 May , which covers the Hung Kings celebrations, Reunification Day and International Labour Day. This is a major public holiday with thousands of Vietnamese booking overseas holidays on airline services from the country’s busiest airport.
inside no 3Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam chief, Lai Xuan Thanh, warned that work would disrupt flights, therefore it was imperative for airlines to minimise passenger inconvenience.
Flights will face delays once the taxiway is closed and this will slow down the transfer of aircraft between the terminal and runway.
Tan Son Nhat airport urgently needs an upgrade as Vietnamese carriers are expanding their fleets with 50 planes due for delivery this year.
Currently, about 30 flights depart and land at Tan Son Nhat airport every hour. This number could fall to 25 per hour once work begins.
On Wednesday, EXO Travel warned its travel industry clients in a news alert that there were unconfirmed reports that maintenance work would be carried out at some key Vietnamese airport and that would cause flight delays across Vietnam in the coming weeks.
It emphasised that the reports had not been confirmed by authorities, or airlines, but it was seeking clarification to minimalise inconvenience for its international guests.
In related news, Pleiku Airport has already been closed for upgrades with an estimated completion date of 25 October.

sourced:ttrweekly.com