Vietnam has been a popular travel destination for decades, but with different kinds of tourism expanding (the country was just named as the world’s top trending spa destination) and visitor numbers on the up, a major part of the country’s infrastructure is in for an overhaul.
The major part? Its airports – specifically in Dong Nai Province. Currently under construction is the brand-new Long Thanh International Airport, 40km east of Ho Chi Minh city, which will serve the surrounding metropolitan area, and it’s set to be Vietnam’s biggest-ever infrastructure project.
According to the Saigon Times, Tan Son Nhat International Airport, which is currently the only one in the region, was designed to handle around 30 million passengers per year, but the country saw a 26 percent increase in international visitors across the country.
So, something had to be done about the growing demand in Vietnam, and the new one should serve more than 100 million people, across four terminals which have reportedly been designed in the shape of a lotus flower.
The idea was originally approved way back in 2011 by Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and construction began on January 5, 2021. According to the Express, the airport will be fully operational once the final phases are finished, likely in 2035.
Clearly this project is pretty huge – it’s costing around £13 million and the airport will cover a whopping 25,000 acres of land, making it the largest and busiest in Vietnam and one of the biggest hubs in the world. Stay tuned for updates.
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