Tan Son Nhat airport to open extra pick-up lane

Nguyen Anh Tuan, director of TCP Vietnam Investment JSC, which operates the parking lot at Tan Son Nhat, said the new lane, D1, lies in front of the domestic terminal and though it is already equipped with ticket control cabins, it has so far been used only to support the D lane that lies next to it.

Now, the D1 lane will be opened to pick up passengers in case there is a surge in the number of arrivals, including ride-hailing service vehicles.

“There will be specific solutions in using the lane later,” said Tuan.

Last November, Tan Son Nhat switched to designating only one car lane for drop-off purposes, while two others would be used for pick-ups, and the last by taxis.

The changes mean all ride-hailing services have to access the third, fourth or fifth floors of the TCP parking lot to pick up customers. Ride-hailing drivers must also pay the airport VND25,000 ($1.08) each time to scoop up clients, instead of the previous VND10,000.

During the past Lunar New Year holiday, the number of passengers arriving at Tan Son Nhat had increased sharply and many have had to wait for hours for taxis, both traditional and app-based ones, causing chaos across all airport pick-up lanes.

According to Southern Airports Authority, the number of passengers at the airport on Feb. 5 hit 66,500, up 6,000 against the previous day.

On Feb. 4, the number of passengers rose by 50 percent against the day before to 97,000.

Tan Son Nhat was designed to serve 25 million passengers per year by 2020, but since 2017, the airport had already served nearly 40 million per annum.

Such fast growth has placed huge pressure on the airport, which has suffered regular overload. Currently, vehicles accessing the airport premises are allowed to stop for no more than three minutes to pick up or drop off customers.