Lift off time nears for Long Thanh airport

Minister of Transport (MoT) Dinh La Thang said the report on investment into the colossal Long Thanh international airport in southern Dong Nai province would be completed in the second quarter of 2012 and then submitted to the National Assembly for consideration.

Under the Long Thanh airport plan approved by the prime minister a few months ago, the airport will be 32 kilometres from Bien Hoa airport, 43km from Tan Son Nhat international airport, 40km from the centre of Ho Chi Minh City and 24km from the centre of Bien Hoa city.

The airport, set to cover 5,000 hectares, is to welcome a maximum of 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo yearly. It will be able to receive A380-800 aircraft and other planes of equivalent size.

The MoT said total investment capital for the three-phase project’s first phase would come in at over $6.74 billion, mobilised from private and state-owned companies, official development assistance, the state coffers and government bond issuances.

But, not all National Assembly deputies are behind the project. Delegate representing Ho Chi Minh City Vo Thi Dung said the project was unnecessary because the country’s southeastern and southwestern regions were already home to Tan Son Nhat, Can Tho and Bien Hoa airports.  

“If Bien Hoa military airport is upgraded, it could become an international airport. I don’t understand why the government decided to build Long Thanh airport with a huge volume of investment capital, in the face of local economic difficulties. We need a clear answer on this,” Dung said.

But, the government has its own reasons for constructing Long Thanh airport. The MoT reported that Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City last year received over 15 million local and foreign passengers and over 340,000 tonnes of cargo.

In the past 15 years, the local and international passenger volumes have annually increased by 13.4 and 9.3 per cent, respectively, while the local and international cargo volumes have also augmented by 13.1 per cent. Thus, Tan Son Nhat airport would annually receive 20-25 million passengers and become overloaded by 2015 or 2018.

“However, it’s impossible to expand Tan Son Nhat airport, as it is located within a highly populated area. So, construction of Long Thanh airport, which would be used in parallel with Tan Son Nhat airport, has been advocated by the government,” Thang told the National Assembly.

“Long Thanh would be developed into a major transit hub in South East Asia. It would be able to compete with major airports in the region and the world,” he said.

Previously, the National Assembly’s Economic Committee called for a halt to the construction of more airports saying Vietnam already had 23 airports, many of which were not currently operational. On average, there is one airport for every 2.7 provinces and cities. Meanwhile, some localities also wanted to open their own airports.