Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has asked for completion of the general planning for Tan Son Nhat International Airport expansion project.

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung

He made the call at an online meeting on localities on airport planning and development on December 29.

According to Dung, most Vietnamese airports are facing overloading, particularly Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City. The airport currently serves up to 32 million passengers a year, seven million over its capacity. Airplanes often have to wait between 15 minutes and half an hour for landing.

The Ministry of National Defence agreed to hand over 20 hectares of land near Tan Son Nhat International Airport for its expansion. The expansion project is aimed to build an additional run-way, one more terminal and increase space for airplane parking, which is expected to raise the airport capacity to 40-50 million passengers.

 Planes at Tan Son Nhat Airport

Dung instructed the ministries and agencies to look for investors to carry out the project under a public-private partnership or build-own-operate model.

The Deputy Prime Minister also asked HCM City to consider building more roads linking Tan Son Nhat Airport and the central area of HCM City to ease traffic congestion at the airport entrance.

Under Vietnam’s general planning on aviation development, by 2030, the country will have 28 airports which can serve a total number of 70 million passengers. However, in reality, passenger numbers have already reached 87 million and the figure is forecast to grow 10-15% in 2017.

At the online meeting, Dung also urged the completion of a feasibility study on building Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai to submit to the National Assembly in 2019.