VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Transport insists on the development of Long Thanh airport in Dong Nai province to ease the burden on Tan Son Nhat airport in HCM City. However, the project has not been applauded.

On July 15, 2013, Le Trong Sanh, former Head of the Management Division of the Tan Son Nhat Airport and Mai Trong Tuan, a former pilot, sent a letter to the Prime Minister, proposing not to build the Long Thanh International Airport.

This is a mammoth project, capitalized at $8 billion, which is really too big if compared with Vietnam’s limited capability.

Meanwhile, the two experts believe that no need to build Long Thanh airport once the Tan Son Nhat airport’s capacity has been improved considerably after the upgrading.

In case the upgraded Tan Son Nhat airport cannot meet the demand, it still can be expanded to the north, where there is a golf course. If the expansion is made, Tan Son Nhat airport would be twice as large as the Singaporean Changi airport, one of the biggest airports in Asia.

In the future, when Vietnam witnesses the international flight boom, it would be able to use the Bien Hoa airport, which is now a military airport and can be upgraded. There is a road linking the airport and HCM City.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure items in the Long Thanh airport area remain very poor.

According to Sanh and Tuan, if necessary, Long Thanh can be turned into a military airport which would not require overly high capital and would not take huge capital.

They believe that this is a perfect solution for Vietnam which can allow saving money and ensuring the economic development and national defense.

The HCM City electorate has recently also raised their voice against the Long Thanh airport development project.

At the meeting between the HCM City Delegation of National Assembly Deputies and the electorate, the city’s dwellers expressed their worry that the development of the airport today would leave a heavy burden for the next generations to bear tomorrow.

Nguyen Van Thai, a voter, said developing Long Thanh international airport should be the story to be discussed after 30-50 years. What Vietnam needs to build now are schools, hospitals for people.

“We even don’t have money to upgrade the north – south railway. Why should we spend so much money to build an airport?” Thai questioned, adding that only when the Tan Son Nhat airport becomes overloaded, will Vietnam need to think of building one more airport in the area.

Dr. Nguyen Thien Tong, former lecturer of the HCM City University of Technology, thinks that someone have deliberately exaggerated the figures to prove the necessity of the development of Long Thanh airport.

“The forecast figures about the capacity of Tan Son Nhat airport need to be considered thoroughly by an independent agency,” Tong said, stressing that this is a very necessary work which helps avoid the money waste when building the Long Thanh airport.   

According to Lai Xuan Thanh, Head of the Civil Aviation Authorities of Vietnam (CAAV), the airport would be built with ODA (official development assistance) capital and commercial loans.

Dat Viet