Passengers are completing check-in procedures at Da Nang airport. A new terminal will be built to help meet the increasing number of passengers to Da Nang. — Photo infonet.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — An estimated VND3.2 trillion (US$147.4 million) is needed to build a new terminal at Da Nang International Airport in Da Nang central city.

As proposed by the Airports Corporation of Viet Nam (ACV), the project will be developed by a group of investors.

The transport ministry on May 12 accepted the ACV's proposal to set up a joint stock company to build the terminal. It comprises the ACV, which will contribute 10 per cent of the total investment capital, Thang Long Air Services Corporation, AOV Investment Corporation, and Ha Noi Construction Corporation.

The construction of the terminal is scheduled to start in January next year at the latest and is expected to be completed by June 2017.

Spread across 40,000sq.m., the new terminal is expected to serve 2.3 million international visitors to Da Nang by 2022 and four million passengers by 2030.

The new terminal will come up next to the existing terminal. It will be developed on a build-operate-transfer basis.

The investors proposed the terminal's construction after the ministry called upon organisations and individuals to invest in the infrastructures of railways, airports, and roads.

Transport Minister Dinh La Thang said at a meeting held on May 12 that it is essential to build the new terminal to meet the rapidly increasing number of passengers to Da Nang, particularly since the opening of more air routes to Da Nang.

Director General of the ACV Le Manh Hung noted that the existing terminal at Da Nang airport was designed to handle a maximum of 6 million passengers per year. However, as of 2014, it was serving 5 million passengers per year.

With 14.5 per cent annual growth rate of passengers, the terminal will be overloaded this year, he said.

The ACV had plans to increase the capacity of the existing terminal to 8 million passengers per year, but that could have met passenger rush only for the next three years and the airport would have again become overloaded, he added.

The existing terminal at Da Nang International Airport was built on 14,400sq.m. The four-storey terminal, constructed on an investment capital of more than VND1.3 trillion, became operational in 2010, with the capacity to handle four million passengers annually. — VNS