CONSTRUCTION PLAN OF LONG THANH AIRPORT TO BE SUBMITTED TO PRIME MINISTER THIS MONTH

In June, the State Appraisal Council will submit the construction plan of phase 1 of Long Thanh International Airport to the prime minister for approval, three months after the deadline.

Although coming three months later than the required by the government, the authorities are still determined to kick off the construction of Long Thanh International Airport in the first quarter of 2021. This information was mentioned in the government’s recent report to the National Assembly.

According to the State Appraisal Council, the main reason of the delay was difficulties in land clearance and compensation to support resettlement. These difficulties are understandable because of the sheer scale of the airport.

At present, Dong Nai People's Committee is focusing on building two resettlement areas for residents in order to be able to hand over land to the investor to begin the construction of the first phase of the airport.

Long Thanh International Airport is one of 48 key transportation projects, 24 of which are already in operation.

The government asked the Ministry of Transport and relevant authorities to complete procedures to license aviation projects, especially those upgrading Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat international airports.

Notably, from now to 2030, Noi Bai airport will have a third runway and passenger terminal with the capacity of 25 million passengers, increasing the airport's total capacity to 50 million passengers by 2030. After that, a fourth runway will be built, raising the total capacity of the airport to 90 million passengers.

Regarding Tan Son Nhat airport, in early May, a feasibility study for upgrading a runway was sent to the Ministry of Transport for approval. The required VND2 trillion ($86.96 million) of funds would come from the state budget. Accordingly, VND1.5 trillion ($65.2 million) would go to construction and the remainder to equipment purchases.

Runway 25R/07L, one of the airport's two runways, will be upgraded to handle larger modern aircraft that have been designed after it was built. This work is expected to take six months once approved, while other supporting infrastructure will be completed over the course of 14 months.

Tan Son Nhat airport handled over 40 million passengers last year, well over its designed capacity of 25 million. This runway upgrade is part of a plan to expand the facility's limit to 50 million passengers per year. A third terminal has also been proposed, though no work has begun.

Source: VIR