The participants at a workshop on mobilizing financial sources for the development of aviation held several days ago all agreed that Vietnam lacks small specialized airports.

No new specialized airport has been built in Vietnam since 2016, when Decree 42 on conditions to open and close specialized airports was released (excluding heliports). Meanwhile, demand in the future for helicopter and taxi flights, and flights to serve agriculture and sports practice is expected to be very high.

Luong Hoai Nam, a respected aviation expert, said that the lack of small airports and small aircraft has created an aviation structure that is unscientific.

“The aviation structure will be unreasonable if small airports and small aircraft are lacking,” he said, adding that there are many small airports and aircrafts in other countries.

In Vietnam, most of the small airports in the past have been upgraded into bigger ones. If Vietnam upgrades Con Dao and Dien Bien Airports, the country will have no small airports.

There is no aviation sector like this in the world. This is a risk that needs to be anticipated and solved as soon as possible.

According to Nam, a specialized airport with a runway of 1.8 kilometers would need investment capital of VND500 billion, which is within the capability of many investors. If Vietnam can attract investors in the field, it will create a breakthrough in airport construction.

“If we follow that way, airports can be built in every locality and province. The large provinces such as Nghe An can have an airport for public transport and a specialized airport."

Pham Ngoc Sau, former director of the Van Don International Airport, told VietNamNet on June 24 that the most important problem now is speeding up investment in airport infrastructure, in large as well as specialized airports.

The transport sector now gathers strength on upgrading existing airports, but it doesn’t realize that some airports no longer have development capability as there are no longer land resources, and it is necessary to design specialized airports to share the workload. 

According to Sau, specialized airports just serve small aircrafts, including heliports, airports for general aviation (exploration, surveying, agriculture, healthcare), not for public passenger carrying. Therefore, the number of them could be high. Dong Nai province, for example, could develop 2 seaplane airports.

Tuan Nguyen