Overall upgrade of domestic terminal T1
In the context of Long Thanh airport expected to be put into operation at the end of this year, ACV is developing a plan to comprehensively upgrade domestic terminal T1 to meet the requirements of reallocating the operating market between the two airports, while improving service quality at Tan Son Nhat.
Currently, Tan Son Nhat airport has three terminals including domestic terminal T1, international terminal T2 and domestic terminal T3. Among them, T1 and T2 are adjacent, using the entrance and exit on Truong Son street (Tan Son Hoa ward), while T3 is more than 1km away, with an entrance gate on the Tran Quoc Hoan - Cong Hoa connecting route. Terminal T3 will be put into operation from April 2025 to serve domestic flights.
After Terminal T3 went into operation, Vietnam Airlines, Sun Phu Quoc Airways, Pacific Airlines, VASCO, Bamboo Airways and some other airlines switched to operating here. Terminal T1 currently mainly serves Vietjet Air flights.
Station T1 has an area of nearly 41,000m2, designed capacity of about 15 million passengers per year, equivalent to about 41,000 passengers/day. According to ACV, after many years of operation and many renovations, many items of station T1 have deteriorated, and the technology and space organization are no longer suitable for current operating needs.
Therefore, ACV orients itself to build a new terminal with a larger scale, applying modern technology to meet long-term operational needs, in the context that Tan Son Nhat is still the main hub of the domestic flight network.
A noteworthy point in the plan is the study of building a tunnel directly connecting station T1 and station T3. The project is expected to form a continuous traffic system between stations, helping passengers transit conveniently without having to travel through roads outside the airport as at present.
Resolving inconveniences in connection between stations
Assessing this option, Dr. Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son - urban planning expert - said that the study of tunnels connecting T1 and T3 is necessary when Tan Son Nhat is operating under a model of many stations but lacks intercommunication.
According to Mr. Son, currently the two terminals are almost operating independently. Although only more than 1km apart, passengers cannot travel directly in the airport area but have to go around through the external road system.
According to the expert, the inconvenience is most clearly shown in passengers who arrive at the wrong terminal. Just mistake T1 instead of T3 or vice versa, passengers have to pull their luggage out of the airport, call a taxi or shuttle bus to return to the remaining terminal. If traffic jams occur during rush hour, travel time can last 20-30 minutes, or even longer, increasing the risk of missing the flight.
Mr. Son said that when Long Thanh airport goes into operation, Tan Son Nhat will still take on most domestic routes, so the demand for travel between terminals will continue to increase. Therefore, connecting tunnels not only solve short-term inadequacies but are also necessary infrastructure for the airport's long-term development strategy.
Agreeing with this view, Dr. Tran Quang Thang - Director of the Institute of Economics and Management of Ho Chi Minh City - said that underground tunnels will only be effective if they are planned as a link in the modern internal transport system.
Mr. Thang cited the experience from many international airports, where terminals are connected by subways, automatic trains or pedestrian corridors with conveyor belts, helping passengers almost not feel the distance between terminals. "The important thing is to create a continuous travel experience for passengers, instead of just building an additional connecting structure" - Mr. Thang said.
Currently, the connection between T1 and T3 still completely depends on ground traffic, while the Truong Son road area and roads around the airport are often congested, especially during rush hours, making it difficult to predict the travel time between the two terminals.
Mr. Thang proposed to study connecting underground tunnels with metro lines, buses, centralized parking lots and other types of public transport to form a multimodal transportation network, instead of just serving travel between the two stations.
