Despite CAAV rejection, Ha Giang determined to build airport

Ha Giang will not give up on its ambition to build its own airport

After being rejected by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), Ha Giang has submitted its airport proposal to the prime minister.

Accordingly, the province would like to add its own airport project to the master plan. The airport was proposed for dual use (military and civil), to be located in Tan Quang commune, Bac Quang district following level II military airport and level 4C civil airport standards.

The airport would span about 388 hectares of space, 70ha of which would be dedicated to military purposes.

In the document submitted to the government, the province affirms that once receiving the prime minister's approval, it would work on zoning, announce the planning, as well as management activities to prepare for the construction of the airport.

Ha Giang People’s Committee made airport investment and development a major policy direction to create a breakthrough in local socioeconomic development.

Previously in early May, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) requiring the MoT to reject proposals to build airports from series of provinces namely Ha Giang, Bac Giang, Ninh Binh, Ha Tinh and Binh Phuoc.

In its evaluation of the master plan to expand the airport network by 2030 with a vision to 2050, the CAAV proposed prioritising investment in building and upgrading major international airports in the next 10 years, as well as adding one more airport at Cao Bang by 2025.

According to Nguyen Anh Dung, deputy director of the Department of Planning and Investment under the MoT, there are six main criteria and 22 sub-criteria to add an airport project to the national development plan. The national development plan was built based on international experience, the natural condition, and the country’s socio-economic situation.

“Currently, non-hub airports, which are serving less than two million passengers per year are making losses. It is not financially efficient to build airports if the distance between them is less than 100km,” he said.

Thus, people in Ha Tinh can go to Vinh (Nghe An) and Dong Hoi (Quang Binh) airports, and people in Ninh Binh can go to other airports, either Cat Bi (Haiphong) or Tho Xuan (Thanh Hoa) within a distance of about 100km.

In addition, most domestic airports currently have not exploited the maximum designed capacity, some airports are often empty in the early stages such as Van Don and Can Tho. Therefore, the efficiency of airport investment needs to be carefully calculated.