On Wednesday, a section of the expanded international terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City was put into operation with added services to improve passengers’ experience.

A part of the expanded international terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport inaugurated on 26 October 2016 (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

The new section is a 3-story wing of the expanded international terminal, lying east of the old T2 terminal, with a total area of 8,780m².

The newly-opened wing added 7 additional boarding gates to the airport, 3 of which are installed with jet bridges while the remaining 4 use shuttle buses to take passengers to their planes.

A 100m² sleeping area featuring 20 couches and a 40m² children’s playground operated by the Southern Airports Services JSC (SASCO) are also available to passengers, free-of-charge, in the new wing.

The children’s playground inside the expanded international terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport inaugurated on 26 October 2016. (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

The expanded terminal is also equipped with 10 mini bedrooms, each measuring approximately 4 m², for passengers for an additional fee.

‘Fresh to go’ convenient stores in the wing offer affordable items starting at 20,000 VND (0.9 USD).

The inauguration of the new section is expected to reduce the load on the existing terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, long infamous for being constantly overloaded.

During this year’s travel peak in July, Tan Son Nhat airport handled an average of 680 arrivals and departures each day.

A total of 107,906 flights carrying over 16 million passengers arrived at or departed from Tan Son Nhat in the first half of 2016, an increase of 21.93% and 25.37%, respectively, from the same period in 2015.

The airport is expected to welcome over 32 million passengers in total by the end of this year, far surpassing its planned capacity of 25 million passengers by 2020.

(Source: Tuoitrenews)