VIETNAM: Ho Chi Minh City’s Air Capacity Will Double In The Coming Years

Ho Chi Minh City’s air capacity will almost double in the coming years, as two new terminals are developed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

The Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister, Trinh Dinh Dung, as saying that Ho Chi Minh City’s airport will need to be expanded to cater for a projected increase in demand. A brand new airport is being developed outside the city, but this won’t be ready for another eight years.

“Tan Son Nhat airport needs to be upgraded to handle between 40 and 50 million passengers each year,” the Deputy PM was quoted saying at a meeting between the central government and local officials.

The expansion plan will include the development of two new terminals, with construction of the first scheduled to get underway in the coming months. This third terminal will have a capacity of 10m passengers per year, and combined with a project to expand the capacity of the existing T2 by three million passengers per year, the overall annual capacity of Tan Son Nhat will be raised to 38m passengers by 2019.

And a fourth terminal will then add a further 10m passengers per year, taking total capacity to 48m passengers per year, while an additional runway is being planned.

Tan Son Nhat International Airport is operating over-capacity; designed to handle 25m passengers per year, it exceeded this in 2015 and 2016 and is forecast to handle 31m passengers in 2017.