A new terminal to serve international airlines officially opened yesterday at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat Airport after 34 months of construction.

The new terminal, designed to serve 10mil passengers a year, is located on nearly 93,000 sq.m with three floors and a mezzanine.

Special equipment covers the areas of access control, information management, building management, and baggage handling.

The US$219mil terminal has escalators, moving sidewalks, baggage screening machines and a sewage treatment plant.

The terminal was funded from an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan from the Japanese Government and capital from the national budget.

The Japan Airport Consultancy worked on the project and a consortium of Japanese companies, Kajima-Taisei-Obaysashi-Madae, was the main contractor. The terminal has provided quality services to over 27,000 flights of 40 airlines carrying 2mil passengers and 34,000 tonnes of cargo since its trial opening in mid-August, according to the general director of the Southern Airport Authority, Nguyen Nguyen Hung.

Transport Minister Ho Nghia Dung said the airport had been handling over 75% of the country's international passengers.

"The new terminal not only meets the growing demand of aviation transport in the south, but also paves the way for economic development in the southern key economic zone, and especially Ho Chi Minh City," said Dung.

The chief representative of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation in Hanoi, Mutsuya Mori, said the new terminal would enable expansion of passenger handling capacity by 2.5 times, up to 18mil passengers per year.

The Japanese ambassador to Vietnam, Hattori Norio, said the new terminal would make passengers feel more comfortable when entering Vietnam via Tan Son Nhat.

"I hope this new terminal will serve as a new symbol for co-operation between Japan and Vietnam," said Hattori.

At the Consultative Group meeting earlier this month in Hanoi, the Japanese Government pledged total ODA of US$1.112bil for Vietnam in this fiscal year, up by 20% compared with the previous year. Hattori said Japan would enhance strategic co-operation with Vietnam in the areas of transport infrastructure, including land and railway transport, and hi-tech industries such as information technology.

Controlled by Southern Airport Authority, Tan Son Nhat Airport has undergone various expansion projects to keep up with demand.

(Source: Viet Nam News)