Developing airports: new playing field for billionaires
A series of new airport projects and upgrading of existing airports have been suggested with total investment capital of billions of dollars.
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A series of airport projects have been suggested |
The modern complex with high investment rate has given a push to the local economy. Many resort tourism projects, valued at billions of dollars, located 10-30 kilometers from the airport, have been implemented.
Van Don, one of the three locations expected to become an SEZ (special economic zone), has also become a ‘hot spot’. Sun Group, a giant real estate developer, has inaugurated the Van Don International Airport, capitalized at VND7.2 trillion.
This is the only airport in Vietnam to be entirely exploited by private investors.
Recently, the mountainous province of Lao Cai asked for permission to build Sa Pa 4C standard airport with the capacity of 1.5 million passengers and investment capital of VND5.8 trillion under the mode of BOT.
Lao Cai wants to have an airport because it is seeing increasingly high number of travelers to Sa Pa, a famous destination for tourists. An airport and air routes will help attract travelers to the locality, where modern projects are ready, including the 5-star Mgallery Sapa, cable car system developed by Sun Group, Sapa Jade Hill by Truong Giang and Bitexco’s chain of seven projects.
Not only Lao Cai, many other provinces and cities are also rushing to seek permission for airport development. Binh Thuan province has drawn up an airport project worth VND5.6 trillion, while Vung Tau has Go Gang and Loc An to serve the Ho Tram Strip tourist complex.
Most recently, Quang Binh provincial authorities and FLC Group asked for the Ministry of Transport’s nod on the project on upgrading Dong Hoi Airport into an international airport which would raise its capacity from 500,000 to 10 million passengers by 2020.
The list of tentative airports being considered by the Ministry of Transport also includes An Giang Airport, capitalized at VND3.4 trillion, Lai Chau VND8 trillion, and the super-project Long Thanh Airport capitalized at tens of billions of dollars.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), 94 million passengers went through airports in 2017 in Vietnam and the number of air passengers may reach 142 million by 2020. That is why more and more investors want to join the fastest-growing aviation market in Southeast Asia.
