In the submission, the Ministry of Transport proposed investing in the construction of an additional runway (CHC) No. 3 in phase 1 of the Long Thanh International Airport (HKQT) project, as well as adjusting the implementation time of phase 1 of this project to 2026.

Long Thanh International Airport started construction phase 1 on January 5, 2021, and is scheduled to be put into operation in 2025. With a designed capacity to serve 100 million passengers and 25 million tons of cargo per year, after completion of construction, Long Thanh International Airport will be the largest airport in the country.

Explaining the proposal to adjust the implementation time of phase 1 of the project to 2026, the Ministry of Transport said that adjusting the construction phase of CHC No. 3 from phase 3 of the project to phase 1 is a change compared to Resolution No. 94/2015/QH13 of the National Assembly and is a change in the scale of phase 1.

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The Ministry of Transport has asked to postpone the completion date of phase 1 of Long Thanh airport. Photo: Hoang Anh

Because the investment progress of CHC No. 3 is about 24 months after the competent authority approves the adjustment of the investment policy (about 12 months of preparation and 12 months of construction), if the National Assembly approves the investment policy at the session at the end of 2024, CHC No. 3 will be completed by the end of 2026.

In addition, the implementation of phase 1 also encountered difficulties such as the project investment preparation time of about 5 years due to the time-consuming implementation of procedures according to regulations. The project implementation time also encountered some difficulties, leading to failure to meet the progress. Therefore, the Ministry of Transport assessed that the component projects could be completed by 2026.

Due to the above issues, the Ministry of Transport recommends that the Prime Minister consider and assign the Ministry of Planning and Investment to advise on the organization of appraisal and adjustment of the investment policy of Long Thanh International Airport project to submit to the Government for consideration and submit to the National Assembly for approval of adjustment.

Specifically, in phase 1, the airport will invest in building 2 runways in the North and 1 passenger terminal along with synchronous auxiliary items with a capacity of 25 million passengers/year and 1.2 million tons of cargo/year; completed and put into operation by 2026 at the latest.