Two meetings on Tan Son Nhat Airport’s expansion on February 26-27 aimed at discussing the proposed options before Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc makes a final decision on the plan. However, the discussion showed headwinds in the offers from a domestic expert group and foreign consultants.

Conflicting proposals

ADPi, the French consultancy company hired by Vietnam’s transport ministry, believes the airport should be prepared to handle 51 million passengers and one million tons of cargo per year by 2025. Hence, the firm proposed the plan of raising Tan Son Nhat's capacity to 50 million passengers and expanding the airport to the south. As proposed by the firm, an additional terminal to the south should be built by 2025, instead of the third runway to the north, as recommend by the Vietnamese expert group of Ho Chi Minh City. The consultancy company said constructing the third runway to the north would cost much in site clearing and cause noise and environmental pollution.

Illustrative photo

However, ADPi's findings and proposals faced opposition from Ho Chi Minh City’s expert team. The local advisors found that the airport would be expected to serve 60-70 million passengers by 2025. “Their (ADPi’s) offers are not reliable”, said Dr. Duong Nhu Hung from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. “The predication is lack of scientific basis when forecasting that the volume of Tan Son Nhat passengers would increase from 44 million in 2020 to 51 million in 2025, equivalent to a growth of 2.87% per year”, Hung added.  While Tan Son Nhat has grown by 12.38 % annually over the past 20 years, it has grown over 14 % a year over the past 10 years, said Tung.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thien Tong, former head of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, said their proposals focus on expanding the airport to the north, not about whether to build the third runway or not.

Ideas from the MoT

Amid the row, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong said the ministry will continue to gather opinions on the expansion project and determine investment efficiency.  “The airport expansion must also take into account the development of other airports in the southern region, especially Long Thanh International Airport, which is scheduled to be put into operation in 2025,” Dong said.

However, Dong believes  that Tan Son Nhat's  capacity should be limited to 50 million passengers by 2025. “We should analyze the investment priorities based on this number”, Dong said.

Nguyen Van Toi (Vietnam Association for Aviation Science and Technology) and Nguyen Phu Hai (aviation consultant) agreed that the third runway should not be built in Tan Son Nhat.

According to Tong, the Ho Chi Minh City’s advisory team would have another meeting to present their Tan Son Nhat Airport expansion plan to the Prime Minister.