New Tan Son Nhat airport terminal to serve 35 airlines

New Tan Son Nhat airport terminal, Tan Son Nhat Airport will soon officially open a new terminal to serve international airlines operating into and out of Ho Chi Minh City.

Airport authorities began a one-week test in the new terminal on August 14 for check-in formalities by Mandarin Airlines, Tiger Airways, Shenzen Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines and Uni Air.

If the test run goes smoothly, all 35 international airlines flying into and out of the airport will use the new facility after September 2, said Tran Vinh Kham, head of the Southern Airport Authority (SAA)'s Administration Division. The older terminal will serve only domestic flights.

With the additional terminal, the time required to check-in will be comparable to other international airports in Southeast Asia, according to Kham.

He said the new terminal equipment meets international standards and includes ten luggage conveyor belts, eight sky bridges, 20 escalators, 18 elevators, eight moving walkways, ten sets of automatic doors, 43 X-ray machines, flight information boards and security equipment.

The four-storey terminal also has specialised retail areas, and will offer services such as the Internet, online ticket sales, entertainment areas, and health and beauty care.

The new Tan Son Nhat airport terminal, which covers 100,000 square meters, will accommodate eight to ten million international passengers per annum. The second phase of the new terminal, to be completed by 2010, will increase capacity to 15 million passengers a year.

Construction on the terminal began August 2004. The Japan Airport Consulting Company holds the design and construction contracts, which it sub-contracted out to a consortium of four Japanese companies: KTOM - Kajima Corporation, Taisei Corporation, Obayashi Corporation and Maeda Corporation - who constructed the terminal and installed the equipment.

Tan Son Nhat Airport now accounts for nearly two-thirds of the international flight arrivals and departures in the country.

Controlled by SAA, Tan Son Nhat Airport has undergone various expansion projects to keep up with demand. In 2002 the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam put forward a construction plan for a new international terminal. The project was to be financed by a special Japan Government Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan of 3.4 trillion VND (260 million USD).

SAA said by 2015 a new international airport, which will be built in Long Thanh district, Dong Nai province, some 40 km from downtown Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam, will supersede Tan Son Nhat, which would then only handle domestic flights.

(Source: VNA)