Low-cost carrier Jetstar Pacific Airlines (JPA) has proposed purchasing the operational rights to the old terminal of Da Nang international airport, the third busiest airport in Vietnam.

Da Nang airport in the central city of Da Nang is one of several domestic airports earmarked by the transport ministry for the transfer of operational rights to raise funds that will be used for modernising other airports and building new ones.

The other airports are the T1 terminal of Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Phu Quoc international airport in the southern province of Kien Giang and Cam Ranh airport in the southern central province of Khanh Hoa.

In order to get the operational rights for the Da Nang airport terminal, JPA may have to compete with a joint venture of three domestic investors: Thang Long Air Services Corporation, AOV Investment Joint Stock Company and Hanoi Construction Corporation.

The joint venture has proposed that the transport ministry should build a new terminal at Da Nang airport, with an annual capacity of 4 million passengers, under a Build-Operate-Transfer model. However, their plan has not yet been approved, and it could not be verified whether their project covers the old terminal chosen by JPA.

Earlier, the T&T Group requested the transport ministry to allow it to buy Phu Quoc International Airport.

The group is the first to ask the ministry to approve its investment in the airport after Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang asked the Airports Corporation of Vietnam to prepare a pilot plan to sell a 100 percent stake in Phu Quoc Airport during a meeting held in Hanoi last month.

Meanwhile, both national carrier Vietnam Airlines and private carrier VietJet Air asked the ministry to transfer to them the operational rights to the T1 terminal of Noi Bai International Airport. Terminal T1, spanning 115,000 square metres, is capable of serving nine million passengers per year through 19 boarding gates.-VNA