Tan San Nhat airport faces with shortcomings in taking off and landing slots for aeroplanes.(Photo: VNA) According to a draft master plan on the development of the national airportnetwork to 2030 with a vision to 2050 from the Civil Aviation Administration ofVietnam (CAAV), Vietnam is set to 26 airports by 2030, including 14international airports. The number could reach 30 by 2050, including 15international airports and 15 domestic airports.
Total investment for planned airports in 2020-2030 is estimated at about 365.1trillion VND (15.87 billion USD), with an additional 866.36 trillion VND neededfor 2030-2050.
The capital will come from official development assistance (ODA), the Statebudget, and also be mobilised from loans from financial institutions andpublic-private partnership projects.
In 2030-2050, four new airports will be prioritised for development, includingthe second one in Hanoi and three others in Lai Chau city of Lai Chau province,Na San of Son La province, and Cao Bang city of Cao Bang province. All of themare in the north.
Also in the draft master plan, some provinces and cities have proposeddeveloping airports in 2021-2030 by converting facilities from militaryairports into civil airports such as Ninh Bình, Binh Phuoc, Bac Giang, HaGiang, Ninh Thuan and Ha Tinh provinces, according to the Ministry of Transport.
Meanwhile, others have proposed converting their existing domestic airportsinto international airports, including Lien Khuong Airport in Da Lat city, BuonMa Thuot in Dak Lak province, Phu Cat in Binh Dinh province and Tuy Hoa in PhuYen province.
A representative from Transport Engineering Design Inc (TEDI) said thenecessity and feasibility of a new airport will be decided based on six majorcriteria including travel demand, socio-economic development, national defence,natural conditions, and distance to other nearby airports.
Vietnam’s airports are mostly harmoniously distributed nationwide, but in thenorthwestern and Central Highlands regions, people do not have an airportwithin a radius of 100km or some airports have lower/higher demand thandesigned capacity. Those issues should be considered carefully, said therepresentative.
According to Dinh Viet Thang, head of the CAAV, the Ministry of Transport iscollecting recommendations on the development of airports relating to fourmajor issues, namely the number of airports, their structureand scale of airports and the State’s policies on airport development.
At present, 22 out of 63 provinces and cities have replied to the ministryabout those issues and many localities proposed adding airports tothe State’s airport development planning, Thang said.
The administration’s point of view is that airports should not be developed enmasse and the plan should concentrate investment in key projects andprojects with large capacity and scale, he said.
According to Bui Van Vo from the Vietnam Association of Aviation Science andTechnology, the draft planning mainly aims to develop the system of airportsserving commercial flights but does not include general and specialisedaviation activities, reported the Vietnam News Agency.
At present, most airports in Vietnam are mixed civil and military airports, soit is necessary to assess military flight operations in the planning. The planalso needs to determine which airports will be civil airports and to addspecialised airport systems to the plan, Vo said.
Tran Kim Chung, Deputy Directorof the Central Institute for Economic Management, said connectinginfrastructure of other types of transport to aviation infrastructure must beconsidered in airport planning and investment.
The Ministry of Transport said demand for aviation transport by 2030 will be276 million passengers and 4 million tonnes of cargo. Those figures willincrease to 650 million passengers and 16 million tonnes of cargo by 2050.
Vietnam currently has 22 airports, including nine international airports and 13domestic airports, and no major transshipment airports at the internationallevel./.
VNA
