Upgrading Con Dao airport to welcome large aircraft, increasing operating capacity

The Ministry of Transport is planning to upgrade and expand Con Dao Airport to receive large aircraft, ensuring passenger handling capacity.

Currently, the only airline operating flights to Con Dao Airport is VASCO using ATR72 aircraft. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+ )

The Ministry of Transport has just sent a document to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha regarding the investment plan for Con Dao Airport.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Transport proposed to continue implementing the project to upgrade and expand the airport area using public investment capital to soon put into operation code C aircraft (A320 and equivalent), serving the travel needs of people, ensuring absolute safety in operation and ensuring national defense and security.

The Ministry of Transport assesses this as an investment plan that ensures effective exploitation as well as effective capital use with reasonable costs.

Currently, the investment project to renovate and upgrade the runway and taxiway at Con Dao Airport has been approved by the Ministry of Transport with a total investment of about 1,680 billion VND, and has been assigned by the Prime Minister as a medium-term public investment plan using state budget capital for the period 2020-2025.

The project will invest in expanding and upgrading the existing runway structure according to the plan with a size of 1,830mx45m; building a new parallel taxiway and connecting taxiways; adding items to ensure safety in night lighting operations; a synchronous landing equipment system to effectively exploit code C aircraft (such as A319, A320neo/ceo, B737-7/8 and equivalent) in accordance with the direction of the Prime Minister and according to the plan. Thus, the investment scale of the project is basically consistent with the recommendations of international consultants to improve the operational capacity of Con Dao Airport.

Previously, based on the calculation results of expected flight routes and operating conditions, international consultant ADPi (France) concluded that the current runway length (1,830m) of Con Dao Airport is enough to receive and effectively operate most types of code C aircraft operated by Vietnamese airlines, except for A321 aircraft that must have reduced commercial payload.

Airlines are evaluated to operate medium-sized code C aircraft (such as A320ceo/neo, A319, B737-7/8...) to ensure the highest operational efficiency as well as infrastructure investment efficiency, ensuring the exploitation of all domestic routes in Vietnam and being able to operate some international routes to Southeast Asia and North Asia.

Regarding works ensuring flight operations, according to current regulations, Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) is responsible for investing, upgrading, and expanding works and technical infrastructure ensuring flight operations at Con Dao Airport.

Regarding civil aviation projects, the leaders of the Ministry of Transport said that in the period up to 2030, it is necessary to research and invest in building a new civil aviation area (passenger terminal, parking lot, synchronous technical infrastructure) with a capacity of about 2 million passengers/year, with an estimated investment cost of about 2,100 billion VND under the public-private partnership (PPP) method.

Therefore, the Ministry of Transport recommends that the Prime Minister direct the People's Committee of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province to study and develop a civil aviation investment project under the PPP partnership method to promptly report to the Prime Minister for permission to implement, meeting the local air transport needs./.

Currently, the runway and taxiway at Con Dao Airport have degraded (built in 2004), with poor load-bearing capacity. The 30m runway width does not meet the standards for operating code C aircraft, only meeting the operating requirements of aircraft types such as ATR72 and equivalent (Embraer E190/E195 reduces the load). It is known that a number of airlines are studying the plan to operate flights to Con Dao Airport using aircraft types such as A320 and E190 (Vietjet Air plans to lease E190 aircraft for operation, after the airport is renovated and upgraded, it will operate A320 aircraft; Vietnam Airlines plans to operate A320 aircraft in the future).

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/nang-cap-san-bay-con-dao-de-don-dong-may-bay-co-lon-tang-nang-luc-khai-thac-post968740.vnp