Plan to expand HCMC airport

HO CHI MINH CITY  The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam plans to expand Ho Chi Minh City airport to reduce traffic congestion by 2020.
Local media reported that according to an amended plan, released late last week, Tan Son Nhat, the country’s busiest airport, will be expanded from 590 hectares to 598.11 hectares by 2020.
The expansion should help to ease passenger congestion.
Tan Son Nhat is the largest of 20 airports in Vietnam and handled 22 million passengers and 406,000 tons of cargo in 2014, according to Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat.
inside no 8“The number of passengers and cargo served by the airport will continue to soar once the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement takes effect,” he said.
The expansion will increase airport aprons to 54 by 2020, from the current 40, according to the plan.
A new airport, Long Thanh International Airport, will be built in Dong Nai province in southern Vietnam to ease the pressure on Tan Son Nhat, but that will not be ready untill after 2020.
Tan Son Nhat handles around 20 million passengers a year and will be heavily congested by 2017, when passenger traffic is expected to exceed the maximum capacity of 25 million.
In the first eight months of this year, 2.83 million foreigners visited the city, a year-on-year increase of 5%. It earned USD2.76 billion from tourism activities during the period, up 4% year-on-year.
The predicted figures for the whole year are 4.7 million and USD4.21 billion.
In 2014, the city welcomed 22 million tourists, including 4.4 million foreigners, earning more than USD3.9 billion in revenue.

sourced: ttrweekly.com