Runway to airport investment

The aviation market has seen explosive growth

Funds will be mobilised from the state budget, official development assistant funds and foreign investment capital.
The Vietnamese Government plans to enhance the nation’s airport capacity by 2.5 times by 2015 and four times by 2020.

During the past decade Vietnam’s aviation market has witnessed rapid growth compared to regional markets. Traffic growth at airports has jumped by an average of 11.4 per cent, 13.7 per cent and 6.9 per cent in terms of passengers, cargo and traffic movements respectively.

United Airlines, Air China, Jestar Airways, Hong Kong Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Tiger Airways and Thai AirAsia have all recently established air routes to Vietnam.
Twenty-four airports are expected to be operational in 2015, including 10 international and 14 domestic airports. International airports such as Hanoi’s Noi Bai, Quang Nam province’s Chu Lai, Khanh Hoa province’s Cam Ranh, Phu Quoc Island’s Duong To and Thua Thien-Hue’s Phu Bai province will be upgraded.

New airports in Dong Nai, Quang Ninh and Cao Bang province will also take shape.
Vu Pham Nguyen Tung, director of CAAV’s Airport Management Department, said all resources would be mobilised to invest into these airports.

“There are many opportunities for foreign investors to invest in Vietnam’s airport network. Foreign investors could invest in these airports under different forms of investment such as BT, BOT and BOO,” said Tung.
Priority will be given to the development of international airports, especially those play a vital role and serve as passenger and cargo hubs such as Noi Bai, Tan Son Nhat, Long Thanh and Chu Lai in order to put these centres on an equal footing with other aviation centres in the region.

Tung revealed that CAAV also submitted a proposal to the government which asked for preferential measures and policies aimed at attracting more investment to speed up the Noi Bai, Chu Lai and Long Thanh projects.