Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) plans to begin expanding the international terminal of Tan Son Nhat airport in HCMC later this month to raise its annual capacity from ten million to 13 million passengers.

Le Manh Hung, general director of ACV, told the Daily on June 3 that contractors are making final preparations and that work on Terminal T2 could start in mid-June.

The expansion project will be implemented in two phases. The terminal will be expanded towards the east in the first phase at a total cost of VND1.52 trillion (US$69.8 million). The second phase costing VND787 billion will commence at the western side of the terminal after the first phase is finished.

The expansion project requires an investment of VND2.31 trillion, with money for consultancy and management packages coming from the corporation’s investment development fund.

ACV calculated it will take 26 months to complete the two phases. Once finished, the terminal will have 120 check-in counters, up by 40, 10 boarding bridges for passengers, up by two, and 19 boarding gates, up seven.

The corporation said the number of passengers going through Tan Son Nhat airport rose from more than 20 million in 2013 to over 22 million last year.

In order to handle 26 million passengers per year, the airport’s domestic and international terminals should be expanded to serve 12 million and 13 million passengers per year respectively apart from more parking spaces for airplanes.

The expansion of Tan Son Nhat airport aims to meet rising demand for air travel to and from HCMC in the years to come before Long Thanh airport is up and running in the southern province of Dong Nai.