The decision approving the airport, designed to become an important regional international air transit hub, was signed Wednesday by Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung.

The first phase will have one 4km long runway with a width of 75 meters and a system of taxiways and apron, and a 373,000 sq.m passenger terminal designed to serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo per year. The work is expected to be completed in 2025.

The work will be divided into four sub-projects: headquarters of state management agencies, flight management services, essential airport facilities, and other items.

Essential airport facilities will include buildings, airport apron, passenger terminals and cargo terminals. This task has been assigned to the Airport Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), which operates 21 airports in the country. ACV will raise its own capital for the construction, the decision says.

The Long Thanh International Airport will apply modern and open technologies so that they can be easily updated with the most advanced construction, management and operational technologies in accordance with international standards.

The project’s investment plan was approved by the National Assembly in mid-2017. The parliament also issued a resolution on compensation, support and resettlement for land clearance to build the airport.

Early last month, the government had directed Dong Nai Province to urgently hand over building sites so that construction can begin early next year.

The airport will have three phases that are expected to be completed in 2040. By then, it will have four runways, four passenger terminals and auxiliaries to accommodate 100 million passengers and 5 million tons of cargo every year.

Lying 40 kilometers east of HCMC, the airport is expected to take up the overflow from the largest existing airport in the country, the Tan Son Nhat International Airport.