Tan Son Nhat International Airport will have an additional 21 aircraft parking slots, including eight permanent and 13 temporary ones, by the end of this year, just in time for the peak air travel season.

A Jetstar Pacific jetliner is seen at Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Tan Son Nhat International Airport will have an additional 21 aircraft parking slots by the end of this year 

Speaking to the Daily on September 6, Do Tat Binh, deputy general director of Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), said the contractor is urgently constructing eight aircraft parking slots near the airport’s international terminal and that they would be up and running by the year-end.

ACV also has plans to arrange 13 parking slots on a 21-hectare site handed over by the military, which was originally a military aircraft parking area. According to Binh, this area was built in 1975 and has now deteriorated, so aircraft can be allowed to be parked there at night on a temporary basis.

This 21-hectare area is near the current taxiways, so its upgrade will be divided into three phases. Phase one will begin next month and the whole project is scheduled for completion in late 2018.

“Tan Son Nhat airport is running short of aircraft parking space, so when the new parking slots are put into service, overload at the airport can be eased,” Binh said. 

He said recent heavy rains significantly affected construction work. Moreover, the area is where there are a lot of aircraft landings and takeoffs, so construction materials and equipment can only be transported to the construction site at night. 

At a working session with Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia on September 1, ACV general director Le Manh Hung said Tan Son Nhat International Airport served about 24 million passengers in the first eight months of 2017. The figure in all of 2017 will be 36.5 million.

Hung said the airport currently has 53 slots for overnight plane parking, far lower than the demand. Therefore, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam early this year suggested air carriers park their aircraft at Can Tho airport to ease the burden on the country’s busiest airport.

The Government has asked the Ministry of Transport to suspend the licensing of new airlines until the airport expansion is complete.

SGT