HANOI, July 6 (Engineering Daily) -- Cat Bi International Airport (Hai Phong City) with total investment of VND 3,666 billion was officially inaugurated on 12 May 2016. At the same time, series of other airport projects have been approved and carried out such as Lao Cai, Van Don (Quang Ninh) with total capital of thousand billion. Is Vietnam airport redundant while many expressways have been put into operation, reducing travelling time.
The construction of many airports at the same time is in the aviation development plan during the period of 2020-2030 approved by the Prime Minister. According to this plan, up to 2020, Vietnam will have 26 airports put into operation, including 10 international airports such as Noi Bai, Cat Bi, Phu Bai, Da Nang, Chu Lai, Cam Ranh, Tan Son Nhat, Long Thanh, Can Tho, Phu Quoc and 16 domestic airports such as Dien Bien Phu, Lao Cai, Na San, Quang Ninh, Gia Lam, Vinh, Dong Hoi, Phu Cat, Tuy Hoa, Pleiku, Buon Ma Thuot, Lien Khuong, Rach Gia, Ca Mau, Con Dao and Vung Tau.
According also to the plan, the total investment is up to 277,800 billion, equivalent to USD 14.2 billion. In which, the plane purchasing investment is of about VND 117,000 billion (USD 7.3 billion) and airport material facility investment of about VND 90,000 billion (USD 5.6 billion). According to many experts' opinions, having 26 airports by 2020 would lead to "the airport inflation", the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam said the number of airports in Vietnam was still modest compared to other countries in the region. For example, Thailand has 34 airports, 37 airports in Malaysia and Philippines has a population of less than Vietnam but there are nearly 40 airports.
There is a reality that many airports are now suffering losses, no customer and low activities. According to the Aviation Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) announced at the "Workshop to introduce investment opportunities in ACV" taken place earlier this March, startling that "Of the 22 airports managed by ACV, only Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat are profitable, the rests were lost". ACV said Chu Lai airport (Quang Nam) has a design capacity of 500,000 passengers per year, but the fact only 8%, in 2014, VND 3.57 billion. Similarly, the only Can Tho International Airport got over 15% per the design capacity of 2 million passengers per year, bringing in revenue of VND 34 billion. Some other airports such as Ca Mau, Rach Gia, Tuy Hoa, Dien Bien, Dong Hoi, Lien Khuong and Phu Quoc will only reach 11-37% of utilization capacity. In other words, Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat are in compensation for losses for the remaining 20 airports.
Many expressways has been put into operation and reduced much travelling time. For instance, the Hai Phong-Hanoi Expressway was put into use in early 2016, 1 hour shortening the traffic time. And the Hanoi-Lao Cai Expressway has decreased the travelling time from 8 hours to 3 hours. Therefore, is it necessary to build more domestic airports when the travelling no longer takes much time.
