Construction of new southern international airport to begin by 2019: Deputy PM

By Toan Dao July 9, 2016 | 05:07 pm PT

Long Thanh International Airport is expected to receive 100 million passengers, four times design capacity of Ho Chi Minh City's existing airport.

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung on Saturday asked relevant authorities to step up efforts to be able to kick off construction at Long Thanh International Airport by 2019, Vietnam News Agency reported today.

He also wants the first phase of the new major airport, which will be built to ease pressure for overloaded Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, will become operational in 2025.

The government of Dong Nai Province, where the airport will be located, was directed to coordinate with the Ministry of Transport and other relevant ministries and agencies to complete compensation and resettlement work for the project as soon as possible, Dung said while in Dong Nai on July 9.

Image of future Long Thanh International Airport. Photo by Vietnam News Agency

Long Thanh, about 40 km away from HCMC, will be buit over three phases and covers a total area of 5,000 hectares in Long Thanh District.

It is designed to handle 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo by 2025 in the first phase, which includes the construction of a runway, a terminal and auxiliary facilities.

In the second and third phases, more runways and terminals will be constructed to raise the total capacity to 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo a year.

Long Thanh is expected to help reduce the overload at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, which has design capacity of 25 million passengers annually but has welcomed around 36 million passengers per year recently.

Total investment capital for Long Thanh is estimated at VND336.63 trillion ($16.03 billion) with cost for the first phase at VND114.45 trillion ($5.45 billion).

Meanwhile, Vietnam is planning a $5.5 billion expansion of the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi to double its capacity by 2030, the government news website reported in late May.

The expansion will be located on an area of 720 hectares opposite the existing airport on the other side of the Vo Nguyen Giap Road. It will double the capacity of the current airport to 50 million passengers per year by 2030.

> Saigon airport to reduce flights during rush hour