PM okays French firm’s plan to expand Tan Son Nhat airport

April 17, 2018 | 16:08

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Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has agreed with the proposal of the French consultant company ADP-I to build a new passenger terminal south of Tan Son Nhat aiport in Ho Chi Minh City as part of the airport expansion plan.

The terminal, with infrastructure meeting international standards, is expected to serve 20 million passengers per year, helping increase the capacity of the airport to handle 50 million passengers per annum by 2025.

The Tan Son Nhat International Airport has become seriously overloaded, forcing many flights to wait in the air to land. The airport has a design capacity of 25 million passengers but the passenger throughput in 2016 was 32 million and in 2017 over 36 million, making the expansion of the airport an urgent task.

The French firm recommended building support facilities including a cargo terminal and an aircraft maintenance station in the airport’s northern area.

According to the PM, this could handle overload in air transport, ensure effective land use and reduce investment costs and guarantee safety and security in line with regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

The government leader assigned the Ministry of Transport to direct the French consultant company to continue working with the Vietnamese counterpart ADCC under the Ministry of National Defence to complete the adjustment of the expansion plan, ensuring efficiency, especially in land use in the north and the south of the airport.

He asked the ministry to work with the HCM City People’s Committee to devise feasible measures to reduce traffic jams around the airport.

The ministry must finalise legal dossiers for approving the adjustment of the expansion plan and relevant planning schemes in addition to devising mechanisms and policies to implement the projects, particularly defining a roadmap to build support facilities in the northern area of the airport, the PM said.

He entrusted the Ministry of National Defence to work with the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the HMC City People’s Committee to review the use of land for defence purpose in areas around the airport and relocate camps of military units to adjust the defence land use plan.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance are responsible for addressing shortcomings to ensure the progress of projects.