Construction unit cost of Long Thanh International Airport towers above global average

Construction unit cost of Long Thanh International Airport stands at high level on globe

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung has reported to the prime minister about the unit cost of the construction of Long Thanh International Airport – Phase 1. Accordingly, a unit at the project will cost $4.66 billion per 25 million passengers, or about $186 million per one million passengers.

Minister Dung said that the airport’s construction cost was appraised in line with regulations and does not exceed the total investment capital assigned by the National Assembly.

The construction unit cost of Long Thanh is $18.6 billion per 100 million passengers equals the construction unit cost of Istanbul Airport in Turkey. This airport began construction in 2015 with a capacity of 90 million passengers a year in the first phase.

The airport had a total investment capital of $12 billion, equaling $13.33 billion per 100 million passengers. Calculating with an annual slippage of 2 per cent (used by the IMF) the investment cost comes to $14.93 billion.

In a recent meeting, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The said that the construction of the airport’s barrier is expected to start in late December. The work on ground filling is expected to be kicked off in the first quarter of next year. The construction of the first phase is planned to be completed in 2025.

Long Thanh International Airport, situated near its namesake township in the southern province of Dong Nai, is a key national project. Once fully operational, the airport is expected to reduce the load on Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City and become a major international aviation hub in the region.

The project is made up of three investment phases with the ultimate goal of making the airport capable of serving 100 million passengers and handling five million tonnes of cargo annually.