Van Nam
Tan Son Nhat currently covers 1,500 hectares with around 590 hectares used for civil and military aviation activities but this international airport is located in an area of high population density, which makes expansion unviable.
The airport’s current capacity is around 20 million passengers per year, so the transport system connected to the airport is frequently overloaded, according to a recent report sent by the city government to the Ministry of Transport.
The report was sent after Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) draw up a plan to expand Tan Son Nhat airport to make it possible to handle 26 million passengers per year pending construction of Long Thanh airport.
According to the city government, if the airport’s annual capacity is to be raised to 50 million passengers, it will have to be expanded to the north, with around 640 hectares to be cleared at an estimated cost of US$9.15 billion.
With such expansion envisioned, the transport system around the airport would be overloaded, resulting in severe congestion, said the city government.
In addition, expanding Tan Son Nhat airport would affect the environment as noise pollution and exhaust emissions would exceed permissible levels. Other factors concerning planning and airspace management of the Ministry of Defense would be impacted, the city government reasoned.
Therefore, the Tan Son Nhat airport expansion plan, in the view of the city government, is not cost-effective, so the city supports the Ministry of Transport’s plan to start work on Long Thanh Airport early.
According to a report of ACV, the maximum capacity of Tan Son Nhat is 25 million passengers per year. The airport is forecast to be overloaded in the 2016-2017 period while the first phase of Long Thanh airport with an annual capacity of 17 million passengers cannot be finished until 2023.
If so, in the six-year period between 2017 and 2023, Tan Son Nhat fails to meet the demand and this will leave an adverse impact on the city’s socio-economic development.
To minimize such negative impacts, the HCMC government has proposed the Ministry of Transport consider adjusting the implementation schedule so that Long Thanh can be put into operation sooner.
Đăng ký: VietNam News