HCM City (VNA) - The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam(CAAV) has submitted a detailed proposal to upgrade and expand Tan Son NhatInternational Airport by 2020 to the Ministry of Transport.

It estimates the cost of newly building and upgrading the runwayarea, terminals and transport system around the airport at around 19.3 trillionVND (850 million USD).

With demand expected to grow by 15 percent a year, the airportwill need to handle 50 - 60 million passengers by 2025, when Long ThanhInternational Airport in neighbouring Dong Nai province is expected to beinaugurated.

By 2020 the CAAV seeks to upgrade the Tan Son Nhat airport toserve 43 – 45 million passengers a year with parking space for 80 aircraft ofvarious kinds like ATR72, A320, A321, B747, B777, B787, and A350.

It seeks to keep the existing two runways and build three more.

One more terminal, T4, with a capacity of 15 million passengers ayear will be built in addition to the existing terminals, which have a capacityof 28 million passengers.

Of the three existing ones, one is used by the military.

The city plans to build a Y-shaped flyover to link Truong SonStreet with the airport.

The CAAV wants to entrust the work inside the airport to the VietnamAirlines Corporation, meaning the carrier has to mobilize the resources neededto build the runways and terminal.

The city will finance the upgrade and expansion work outside theairport.-VNA