The Ministry of Defence on February 21 signed the minutes on the handover of nearly 20 hectares of military land at Tan Son Nhat International Airport to the Transport Ministry to enable the airport expansion.

A corner of Tan Son Nhat International Airport

According to Lai Xuan Thanh, Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), the upgrading of the apron area on the transferred land with begin immediately with the goal of adding 30-35 new aircraft parking positions to the current 52 before the Lunar New Year 2018 to tackle congestion at the airport.

A new taxiway will be also constructed to enhance the airport’s capacity, he added.

Tan Son Nhat is already overstrained by the quickly increasing flow of flights and passengers. It received more than 26.5 million passengers last year and the number is expected to increase to around 31 million this year, making an upgrade even more urgent task.

Tan Son Nhat also has to deal with flooding right on the runway and traffic congestion on the streets outside the airport.

VNA