Over VND 11.7 trillion to upgrade Con Dao airport

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) has recently reported to the Ministry of Transport about the plan for Con Dao airport to ensure the operation of A321 aircraft.

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) has recently reported to the Ministry of Transport about the plan for Con Dao airport to ensure the operation of A321 aircraft.

Con Dao airport

Accordingly, in order to upgrade Con Dao airport, it is expected that the total budget will be more than VND11.7 trillion.

The Con Dao airport, located in the district of the same name in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province, was built during the French colonial period. It was upgraded in 2003 and put into operation a year later, serving both civil and military flights. In 2004, it was upgraded to receive ATR72 aircraft and its terminal can serve up to 200 passengers at a time. At present, it is operated by Vietnam Air Service Company (VASCO) with two routes linking Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong delta city of Can Tho.

Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, Dinh Viet Thang, said that the CAAV directed the Airport Design and Construction Consultancy One Member Ltd Company (ADCC) to study the plan on upgrading the airport’s runway to receive airplanes such as the Airbus A320 and A321, instead of just ATR72 aircraft.

The ADCC consultant has studied and proposed extending the airport’s runway from 1,830 metres to 2,400 metre, and width of the runway will be 45 metres. At the same time, the parking area is planned to have enough space for at least eight Airbus A320s, ensuring a capacity of two million passengers per year, with land reserves available for expansion when needed.

Of the total cost of VND 11.7 trillion, more than VND 5.3 trillion will be spent to upgrade and extend the runway. In the case that it is possible to source soil from on the island, this figure will be reduced to nearly VND 2 trillion.

The option was evaluated by experts with the advantage of exploiting the current generation of aircraft A321 and the new generation of aircraft A319, A320, A321 (neo/ceo). However, the CAAV also assessed that the option has the limitation of having to fill the sea, which causes construction investment costs to increase, extending the construction time of the construction items as planned.

According to the Deputy General Director of Airports Corporation of Việt Nam (ACV), Do Tat Binh, instead of upgrading the runway to serve larger aircraft, it is necessary to study a more efficient way of using small aircraft and flying more frequently.