HCMC braces for Tet gridlock around airport

By Huu Nguyen   January 10, 2020 | 08:00 pm PT
HCMC braces for Tet gridlock around airport
Traffic jam on Tran Quoc Hoan Street leading to Tan Son Nhat Airport one day ahead of the 2019 Lunar New Year. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.
Ho Chi Minh City will postpone road construction works and deploy extra personnel to regulate traffic around Tan Son Nhat airport during Tet.

Officers will regulate traffic in areas around the airport that usually suffers from congestion such as the Lang Cha Ca Roundabout, the intersection of Hoang Van Thu, Nguyen Van Troi and Phan Dinh Giot Streets and the Truong Son intersection in Tan Binh District.

The city' Transport Department will only allow emergency works on roads leading the airport between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. during the seven-day holidays starting on January 22.

Tan Binh and neighboring Go Vap District have made plans to regulate roads and sidewalks near the airport to ensure free flow of traffic.

Inside the airport, the Southern Airports Authority will station personnel to regulate traffic at parking lots and terminals to avoid congestion besides creating additional parking lots as backup.

The airport is expected to get peak crowds between January 9 and February 8 as people travel for Tet, the biggest holiday in Vietnam and main occasion for family reunions. Thousands of overseas Vietnamese also return home for the festival.

The number of passengers per day is expected to average 130,000 during the month, 10,500 more than last year.

For years, Tan Son Nhat has been under pressure during this holiday season. The airport, designed with both domestic and international terminals, has come increasingly under strain.

It handled more than 40 million passengers in 2019, 1.6 times its intended capacity of 25 million.

 
 
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