Vietnam has scaled down the construction plan for a new airport to serve Ho Chi Minh City by building only one runway instead of two.
An unnamed official of the Airports Corporation of Vietnam said only one runway will be constructed at Long Thanh airport when the first phase of the project starts next year, according to the Thanhnien News.
The previous plan would have two runways but cutting it to one will not affect its capacity to handle 38 million passengers a year, the official said.
The construction cost for the new airport will be lowered to US$6.6 billion (215 billion baht) from $7.8 billion partly due to no compensation for land controlled by the Vietnamese Defence Ministry, the official added.
Vietnam hopes Long Thanh, located about 40 kilometres northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, will take over Tan Son Nhat as the main gateway to Vietnam.
The Airports Corporation of Vietnam planned to expand Tan Son Nhat to handle 26 million passengers in the future after it reached capacity of 20 million in 2013.