The construction of T3 at Tan Son Nhat International Airport begins. Photo: VGP

The state-owned Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) organised the groundbreaking ceremony for the T3 Terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on December 24. The project has a total investment capital of $474 million, of which ACV contributes 70 per cent and 30 per cent comes from commercial loans.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that transport infrastructure development – including freight transport infrastructure – is one of three strategic breakthroughs for the country’s sustainable socioeconomic development.

“The diversification of transport modes is an important factor in boosting the improvement of the transportation network and regional links,” he said.

Once completed, the third terminal will handle 90 per cent of domestic flights and 10 per cent of international flights with a total of 20 million passengers annually.

The new terminal will help to resolve the overload for the existing terminals, which are receiving nearly double the number of passengers compared to their designed capacities.

Tan Son Nhat International Airport currently has two terminals, with T1 serving domestic flights and T2 handling international travel. The two together were designed to cater for 25 million passengers a year by 2020 but have been receiving almost 40 million annually since 2017.