In his address at the ground-breaking ceremony for the project, the Vietnamese Government chief said transport infrastructure development, including freight transport infrastructure, is one of the three strategic breakthroughs for the nation’s ustainable socio-economic development.

The diversification of modes of transport is an important factor in ameliorating the transportation network, Chinh said.

The project is set to take 37 months and will contribute to spurring socio-economic development, and ensure security and defence of HCM City as well as the southern region.

The State-owned Airports Corporation of Vietnam is carrying out the work at a cost of nearly VND 11 trillion equivalent to US$463.2 million.

Recent years saw the number of passengers going through Tan Son Nhat airport increase to nearly double its designed capacity.

The airport has two terminals now, with T1 serving domestic flights and T2 handling international flights. T1 can serve up to 15 million passengers a year and T2, 10 million.

The airport was designed to handle 25 million passengers a year by 2020, but it has been receiving almost 40 million a year since 2017.

Once completed, T3 will handle domestic flights and up to 20 million passengers annually.

With the national economy showing strong recovery after the pandemic, passenger numbers have soared again as aviation and tourism activities is gradually recovering.