Work to upgrade HCM City’s Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport must be completed at the earliest to ensure the new facilities can be used from next year. – Photo thanhnien.vn

HCM CITY – Work to upgrade HCM City’s Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport must be completed at the earliest to ensure the new facilities can be used from next year, Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng has said.

Speaking at a meeting with State-owned consultancy firm Airport Design and Construction Consultancy One Member Limited Liability Company (ADCC) on Thursday, he said the work needs to be completed quickly to mitigate the severe congestion “from the air to the ground, from inside to outside” at the airport.

The work must also be completed at the lowest prices to enable the airport to break even, he said.

Due to a shortage of public funding, private investment has been encouraged in the upgrade, according to Dũng.

ADCC offered six alternative plans at the meeting.

The first envisages construction of all landing roads and taxiways, parking bays, terminals and supporting facilities on the golf course situated to the north, and the use of surrounding areas to enlarge the airport.

This would take 10-15 years for construction and removal of 140,000 households, and cost of VNĐ201.35 trillion (US$8.9 billion).

Plan No 2 includes parallel taxiways and runways, and upgrades to the existing runway in the northern part of the airport (25L/07R Runway).

It also includes a parallel runway and a parking bay in the northern section, a mixed-use (military and civil aviation) terminal that can handle 10 million passengers a year in the southern section of the airport and the 10-million-passenger T4 terminal.

The plan, estimated to cost VNĐ61 trillion and take 8-10 years, will allow the airport to handle 43-45 million passengers a year.

Plan No 2 B includes a second taxiway parallel to runways in the north, a taxiway connecting the new runway and parking bays, and terminal T4, besides the mixed-use terminal in the south.

It will cost VNĐ93 trillion and take 10-12 years. The plan also includes construction of runway No 3 and parking bays in the north, and the mixed-use 10-million-passenger terminal in the south and the 10-million-passenger T4 terminal.

Plan No 2C is similar to plan No 2B, but with a bigger capacity for T4 of 25-30 million passengers. This will raise the capacity of the airport to 68-70 million passengers and take VNĐ131 trillion and over 10 years.

Plan No 2D includes construction of terminal T5, which will help the airport handle 78-80 million passengers and take VNĐ185.5 trillion and over 15 years.

Plan No 3 includes construction of a parallel taxiway and more connecting runways and parking bays and runways in parallel and between the take-off and landing runways, besides upgrades to the northern runway and construction of a mixed-use 10-million-passenger T3 terminal in the south.

This plan, which will use military land, is estimated to cost VNĐ19.7 trillion and take less than three years. It will enable the airport to handle 43-45 million passengers.

Dũng ordered ADCC to keep polishing the plans. —VNS