Long Thanh International Airport

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Long Thanh International Airport is an airport planned for construction in Long Thanh County, Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam, approx 40 km North-east Ho Chi Minh City. It is intended to become operational by 2011 and handle over 100 million passengers annually when it is built to the maximum designed capacity.

1 The necessity for building this airport
2 The Master Plan
3 Phase 1
4 Phase 2 and future expansion
5 Ambition of the Vietnam government
6 References

[edit] The necessity for building this airport

Tan Son Nhat International Airport is located inside the crowded city of Ho Chi Minh City. Due to the limited area and for safety reasons, it's hard to expand to meet with increasing demand of passenger growth. According to the forecast, Tan Son Nhat will handle 15 million passengers by 2015, which is its maximum capacity. The growth of Vietnamese economy (7-8% annually) during the past 20 years, as well as the rapid flow of international tourists to Vietnam (15-20% annually) require the upgrading the infrastructure. In addition, with a current population of 83 million and a forcast of 100 million by 2020, will also require the expansion of infrastructure

[edit] The Master Plan

The Master Plan for Long Thanh International Airport was approved by the Prime Minister Phan Văn Khải in 2006. According to which, the airport will cover on an area of 5,000 ha (50 square km). It will have four runways (4,000 m x 60 m), five terminals and concourses with the maximum capacity of 80 to 100 millions passengers annually. The cargo terminal will be able to handle up to 5 million metric tonnes of cargo per annum. Total cost estimate to build this airport is around $8 billion invested from the government's investment budget, private and foreign funds. Based on the demand of the transportation, the investment will be divided in phases. The Southern Airport Authority (an organization under The Ministry of Transportation of Viet Nam) is in charge of development of this project.

[edit] Phase 1

Phase 1 will begin in 2007 and finish in 2010. Upon completion of this phase, this airport will have a capacity of 20 million passengers per year. It will have a passenger terminal, 2 parallel runways (4,000m x 60 m) to allow two landings or takeoffs at the same time, is capable to handle biggest aircraft like Airbus A380 or Boeing 777. Besides the existing 51A Highway, the Ho Chi Minh - Long Thanh - Dau Day 10-lane Expressway connecting this airport to Ho Chi Minh City, The Bien Hoa - Vung Tau 8-lane Expressway linking Bien Hoa city and Vung Tau city to this airport will also be built.

[edit] Phase 2 and future expansion

Phase 2 will begin in 2010 to 2015. Another terminal and a third runway will be build to handle 40 million passengers and 5 million metric tonnes of cargo per year. After 2015, based on the growth of passengers, this airport will be expanded to its full design capacity.

[edit] Ambition of the Vietnam government

This airport is built to become one of the busiest transit airports in Asia. It will be the hub for non-stop flights from Asian countries to the United States and Latin American countries and vice versa. Before 1975, Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat Airport used to be one of the busiest airports in the world thanks to its geographical advantage and the attraction of tourist sites in Vietnam.