New direction of Government leaders on investment plan for Con Dao Airport

The Ministry of Transport is required to review the overall investment plan for Con Dao Airport to ensure consistency and efficiency, avoid scattered investment, and be consistent with the Project on mobilizing social capital to invest in aviation infrastructure.

Con Dao Airport currently only operates small aircraft and has a designed capacity of only 400,000 passengers/year, so it cannot meet the current increasing demand.

The Government Office has just issued Official Dispatch No. 5843/VPCP-CN to the Minister of Transport informing the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha regarding the proposal of the Ministry of Transport on the investment plan for Con Dao Airport.

Accordingly, the Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Transport to implement the direction of the Government leaders (in Official Letter No. 302/LDCP dated August 11, 2022 of the Prime Minister; Notice No. 110/TB-VPCP dated April 4, 2023 of the Government Office), review the overall investment plan of Con Dao Airport to ensure synchronization, efficiency, avoid scattered investment and be consistent with the Project on orientation to mobilize social capital to invest in airport infrastructure.

The proposed overall investment plan to call for, attract and implement investment projects must clearly state the legal basis, scientific basis, feasibility (investment progress, investment efficiency, suitability with scale and development orientation, suitability with planning...); which contents have ensured compliance with the direction of the Government's leaders on attracting investment under the PPP method (calling for full or partial PPP investment? reasons? assessment of feasibility and implementation progress).

“The Ministry of Transport shall discuss and agree on the investment plan with the People's Committee of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province; report to the Prime Minister before August 20, 2024”, Official Dispatch No. 5843.

Previously, the Ministry of Transport had In Official Dispatch No. 7942, the Ministry of Transport proposed to the Government leaders to allow the Ministry to continue to organize and implement the Investment Project to renovate and upgrade the runway and taxiway at Con Dao Airport using public investment capital approved by the Minister of Transport in Decision No. 1795/QD-BGTVT dated October 14, 2021.

In addition, the Ministry of Transport also proposed to assign the People's Committee of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province to study and develop a project to invest in the civil aviation area of Con Dao Airport under the PPP method to soon report to the Prime Minister for permission to implement.

In Official Dispatch No. 7942, the Ministry of Transport clearly explained why it took the State management agency of transport more than a year to find the optimal solution for upgrading Con Dao Airport.

According to Mr. Le Anh Tuan, Deputy Minister of Transport, immediately upon receiving the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, the Ministry of Transport directed the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and relevant units to urgently review and study the overall investment plan, synchronizing the items of Con Dao Airport, ensuring safe and effective exploitation of code C aircraft (such as A320, A321, B737), including the content of reviewing and studying the plan to adjust the planning of Con Dao Airport.

In the initial review results conducted in May 2023, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam affirmed that the planning option with the direction of the existing runway is the optimal option.

To fully exploit the commercial load for mid-range aircraft such as the A321, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam reported that it is necessary to extend the runway about 860 m (to the East) towards the sea to reach a length of 2,400 m.

According to this plan, the preliminary estimate of investment cost for the development of Con Dao Airport is over 10,000 billion VND. Of which, the estimated investment cost for airport area works is about 10,600 billion VND; investment in civil aviation area is about 2,100 billion VND; investment in flight operation assurance works is about 350 billion VND; and infrastructure works to supply aviation fuel is about 150 billion VND.

However, due to the limited terrain of Con Dao Airport area, along with the complicated conditions of deployment to the sea, large investment costs, and large impacts on the environment, in order to have a sufficient basis for consideration, the Ministry of Transport has proposed using the Australian Government's aid capital to select a reputable international consulting unit to support the review and assessment of the runway's ability to meet the requirements and recommend the optimal aircraft type for exploitation at Con Dao Airport.

Through the support fund from the “Transport Industry Technical Support Program - Aus4Transport”, the functional units of the Ministry of Transport have selected an international consulting unit to review the investment plan for Con Dao Airport, ADPi (France) - one of the world's leading consulting firms in airport planning and exploitation, which has participated in the planning of many major airports in the world.

For nearly a year, ADPi has conducted surveys at Con Dao Airport, studied the experience of world airports with similar configurations to Con Dao Airport, and worked with Vietnamese airlines and related units.

By June 2024, ADPi had its final report and was highly appreciated by aviation industry units, especially by airlines.

According to ADPi's recommendation, the current runway length (1,830m) of Con Dao Airport is sufficient to receive and effectively exploit most types of code C aircraft operated by Vietnamese airlines (A320neo/ceo, B737-7/8, E190/E195), except for A321 aircraft that must have reduced commercial payload.

The consulting unit also recommends that airlines should 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, similar to the above-mentioned airports in the world, ensuring the exploitation of all domestic routes in Vietnam and the possibility of exploiting some international routes to Southeast Asia and North Asia.

“However, to increase the runway exploitation capacity, Con Dao Airport needs to build a refueling area at the Port; build parallel taxiways to increase capacity by 50%, even with the operating fleet (ATR72 and E190) and add construction items to ensure safety in exploitation such as: runway end safety strip - RESA; night lighting system, landing equipment…”, ADPi consultant proposed.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/chi-dao-moi-cua-lanh-dao-chinh-phu-ve-phuong-an-dau-tu-cang-hang-khong-con-dao-d222627.html