Tan Son Nhat International AirportTan Son Nhat International Airport
Tan Son Nhat International Airport (IATA: SGN, ICAO: VVTS) (Vietnamese: Sân bay Quốc tế Tân Sơn Nhất) is Vietnam‘s largest international airport in terms of area (800 ha/1,977 acres compared with 650 ha/1,606 acres of Hanoi‘s Noi Bai International Airport and Da Nang‘s Da Nang International Airport.
It has a handling capacity of 15-17 million passengers per year, compared with the capacity of Hanoi - Noi Bai airport of 8 million passengers and Da Nang‘s 2 million passengers.
It is also the largest airport of Vietnam in terms of passengers handled (with an estimated number of over 12.5 million passengers per year in 2009, accounting for more than half of Vietnam‘s air passenger traffic),[4][5] serving Ho Chi Minh City as well as Dong Nam Bo in southern Vietnam. Its IATA code SGN was derived from the city‘s former name of Saigon. In 2010, the airport handled 15,500,000 passengers and 130,547 aircraft movements.
Tan Son Nhat Airport History:
Tan Son Nhat International Airport has its origins in the early 1930s, when the French colonial government constructed a small airport with unpaved runways, known as Tân Sơn Nhất Airfield near the village of Tan Son Nhat. By mid-1956, with U.S. aid, a 7,200-foot (2,190 m) runway had been built and the airfield near Saigon became known as South Vietnam‘s principal international gateway.
During the Vietnam War (or Second Indochina War), Tan Son Nhut Air Base (then using the alternative spelling Tân Sơn Nhứt) was an important facility for both the U.S. Air Force and the South Vietnamese Air Force.
Between 1968 and 1974, Tan Son Nhut Airport was one of the busiest military airbases in the world. During the last days of South Vietnam, Pan Am schedules from 1973 showed Boeing 747 service was being operated four times a week to San Francisco via Guam and Manila.[6] Continental Airlines operated up to 30 Boeing 707 military charters per week to and from Tan Son Nhut Airport during the 1968–74 period.
New terminal:
A new international terminal funded by Japanese ODA and constructed by a consortium of four Japanese contractors (KTOM, abbreviation of four contractors‘ names: Kajima – Taisei – Obayashi Corporation – Maeda), opened in September 2007 with a capacity for 8–10 million passengers a year. The new terminal gives the airport a total annual capacity of 15–17 million passengers.
The old terminal is now used for domestic flights. After 2020, when Long Thanh International Airport is completed, Tan Son Nhat will serve domestic passengers only.
HCMC Airport Facility:
Following the opening of its new international terminal in September 2007, Tan Son Nhat has two major terminal buildings with separate sections for international and domestic flights. The capacity of the new terminal, once fully completed, will be 8 million passengers per annum. When Long Thanh International Airport is completed in 2015, Tan Son Nhat will serve domestic passengers only.
The Prime Minister of Vietnam, by Decision 1646/TTg-NN, has approved the addition of 30 hectares (74 acres) of adjacent area to extend the apron and to build a cargo terminal to handle the rapid increase of passenger (expected to reach 17 million in 2010, compared to 7 million and 8.5 million in 2005 and 2006 respectively) and cargo volume at the airport.
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