VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam has missed an opportunity to become one of the few regional aviation centers because of delays in the Long Thanh Airport project, experts say.

Vietnam spent 30 years on discussions before coming to a conclusion that it needs to build Long Thanh international airport in Dong Nai Province.

The $7.8 billion airport project, if approved by the National Assembly, is expected to kick off in 2016 and become operational in 2023-2025. It will serve as the biggest airport in Vietnam and a major transit airport in the region.

The airport, with capacity of 80-100 million passengers per annum, is expected to change the face of Dong Nai Province.

There will be an airport city providing sky-use and flight-control fees, airport services, and aircraft maintenance and repair services.

Long Thanh also would help to attract more travelers to Vietnam with 30 million foreign passengers expected to go through the airport by 2025.

Vietnam first thought of developing Long Thanh airport in the 1980s. However, it wasted too much time discussing the project. And while Vietnamese officials were still busy discussing, Singapore went a step ahead by opening Changi Airport in 1981.

Luong Hoai Nam, an aviation expert, commented that Vietnam has missed great opportunities because of the delays with the Long Thanh Airport project. While Thailand has Suvarnabhumi and Malaysia has Kuala Lumpur airports, which are competitive international airports in the region, Vietnam has proceeded slowly with Long Thanh.

A senior executive of VietJet Air noted that airports are always “money making machines”, and Vietnam needs to start the airport project soon and not repeat the same mistake.

Bright future for Long Thanh

Tony Tyler, the general director of IATA (International Air Transport Association), said  that even though there are several big transit airports in the region, including Changi in Singapore and Chek Lap Kok in Hong Kong, Vietnam will still have opportunities to succeed with Long Thanh.

He said that Vietnam is located in Asia Pacific, where there are 37 international air routes, and the number will increase sharply in the future.

The Airport Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) believes that Long Thanh has many competitive advantages with other regional airports, including a stable political situation and attractive tourism sites. Long Thanh covers a large area, and it would be difficult to expand the airports in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Analysts noted that regional countries continue pouring money into airports. Singapore is building a fourth terminal at Changi Airport, expected to be completed by 2017. Thailand and Malaysia have set goals for their airports to be capable of serving 100 million passengers a year.

The Long Thanh airport investment report showed that the expected EIRR (economic international rate of return) is 22.1 percent, higher than the standard rates of 10-12 percent of public works in Vietnam. The north-south express railway project’s EIRR is 10.6 percent.

Tien Phong