A new terminal opened at Da Nang International Airport on Dec.15 morning. The first flight departed for HCM City .

The terminal, which will eventually replace the old terminal, will serve 44 domestic and international flights, according Nguyen Hoang Lien, chief of office of the Middle Airports Corporation.

All flights from Da Nang will now depart from this terminal, Lien said, adding that important airport services had been shifted from the old facility to the new one at the beginning of this month.

The new facility would help the airport become a gateway and transit to other airports in the region and the world.

“More importantly, it will help Da Nang become a driving city for the development of the country’s central region,” he said.

The four storey terminal covering 14,400 sq.m will serve about four million passengers a year. This will grow to six to eight million by 2015.

The terminal will also receive from 400,000 to 1 million tonnes of goods a year.

With a total investment capital of nearly 1.35 trillion VND (about 64 million USD), it is the largest project involving Airports Corporation.

Da Nang International Airport is the third-largest airport in Vietnam and the largest in the central region. It now serves 20 domestic and international flight routes with about 1,500 passengers per day./.