| Name | Tan Son Nhat International Airport |
|---|
| Nativename | Sân bay Quốc tế Tân Sơn Nhất |
|---|
| Image-width | 200 |
|---|
| Iata | SGN |
|---|
| Icao | VVTS
|
|---|
| Caption | |mark=Airplane_silhouette.svg|marksize=10 |
|---|
| Label | Tan Son Nhat Airport|position=right |
|---|
| Lat deg | 10|lat_min=49|lat_sec=08|lat_dir=N |
|---|
| Lon deg | 106|lon_min=39|lon_sec=07|lon_dir=E |
|---|
Location of airport in Vietnam
|type= Public
|owner= Vietnamese government
|operator= Southern Airports Corporation
|city-served=
Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
|location=
Tan Binh District
|hub=
Jetstar Pacific AirlinesVASCOVietnam Airlines
|elevation-f= 33
|elevation-m= 10
|coordinates=
|website=
|metric-elev= yes
|metric-rwy= yes
|r1-number= 07L/25R
|r1-length-f= 10,000
|r1-length-m= 3,048
|r1-surface= Concrete
|r2-number= 07R/25L
|r2-length-f= 12,468
|r2-length-m= 3,800
|r2-surface= Concrete
|footnotes=
|stat-year= 2008
|stat1-header= Passenger movements
|stat1-data= 12.427.808
|stat2-header= Airfreight movements in tonnes
|stat2-data= 444.223 ). 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), 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.
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 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
(VNAF). 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 .
Continental Airlines operated up to 30
Boeing 707 military charters per week to and from Tan Son Nhut Airport during the 1968-74 period.
On 9 December 2004, United Airlines became the first U.S. airline to fly to Vietnam since Pan Am's last flight during the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. UA 869 (operated by a Boeing 747-400) landed at Ho Chi Minh City, the terminus of the flight that ran from San Francisco via Hong Kong. On 29 October 2006, this service was switched from San Francisco to Los Angeles with a stop in Hong Kong, operating as UA 867 (also using a Boeing 747-400). In 2009, the service UA 869 has resumed once again from San Francisco via Hong Kong International.
In 2006, this airport at Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City served approximately 8.5 million passengers (compared with 7 million in 2005) with 64.000 aircraft movements . HCM - Tan Son Nhat Airport has recently accounted for nearly two thirds of the arrivals and departures at Vietnam's international gateway airports.
Due to increasing demand (about 15%-20% per annum), this airport has been continuously expanded by the Southern Airports Corporation.
New international terminal
A new international terminal funded by
Japanese
ODA and constructed by a consortium of four Japanese contractors (KTOM, abbreviation of 4 contractors's names:
Kajima -
Taisei -
Obayashi -
Maeda), opened in September 2007 with a capacity for 8-10 million passengers a year, thus giving the airport a total annual capacity of 15-17 million passengers. The old terminal is now used for domestic flights only.
Arrivals and Departures are split across two floors.
Terminals, airlines and destinations
Domestic flights operate from Terminal 1, whilst international flights use Terminal 2.
at the international terminal]]
Passenger
Cargo airlines
The airport's future
The current Tan Son Nhat airport is located inside the crowded city of Ho Chi Minh City, and a limited area for expansion and safety concerns would make it hard to upgrade in order to meet increasing demand. Following a recent decision by the Vietnamese Prime Minister, a new airport—
Long Thanh International Airport—will replace Tan Son Nhat airport for international-departure use. The master plan for this new airport was approved in April 2006. The new airport will be built in Long Thanh county, Dong Nai province, about northeast of Ho Chi Minh City and northwest of the petroleum-focused city of Vung Tau, near Highway 51A. The pre-feasibility study for this project is under way. The Long Thanh International Airport will be constructed on an area of , and it will have four runways (4,000 m x 60 m or 13,100 ft x 200 ft) and be capable of receiving the
Airbus A380 jumbo jet. The project will be divided in two stages. Stage one includes the construction of two parallel runways and a terminal with a capacity of 20 million passengers per year, due to be completed in 2011. The second stage is scheduled for completion in 2015, leaving the airport with three passenger terminals and a cargo terminal designed to received 5 million metric tons of cargo per year. The total invested capital of this project is an estimated
US$8 billion. Upon completion of Long Thanh International Airport, Tan Son Nhat Airport will serve domestic passengers only. Long Thanh International Airport is expected to be the leading airport on the Indochinese peninsula, and one of the busiest air transportation hubs in the southeast Asian region.
See also
Da Nang International Airport
Long Thanh International Airport
Noi Bai International Airport
List of airports in Vietnam
References
External links
Tan Son Nhat Airport Official Website
Southern Airports Corporation Official Website (SAC)
Southern Airport Services Company Official Website, a subsidiary of SAC
Saigon Ground Services official website, a subsidiary of SAC
Tan Son Nhat International Airport Ground Services (TIAGS) official website; a subsidiary of Vietnam Airlines
News Item on Fire at Airport on Monday 27 October 2008
Category:Airports in Vietnam
Category:Transportation in Ho Chi Minh City
Category:Buildings and structures in Ho Chi Minh City
