Seeking opinions on amending the decree to exploit Chinese aircraft in Vietnam

Chinese-made COMAC C919 aircraft at Van Don airport - Photo: TTO

The Ministry of Construction has just issued an official dispatch to seek opinions from relevant ministries and sectors on amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 92/2016/ND-CP of the Government on conditional business lines and occupations in the field of civil aviation according to simplified procedures and procedures to take effect immediately upon promulgation. This is a move to be able to import Chinese-made aircraft for exploitation in Vietnam.

Decree 92/2016/ND-CP currently stipulates: "Aircraft types imported into Vietnam must be granted aircraft type certificates by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) or the Vietnamese aviation authority."

According to the proposal of the Ministry of Construction, the above regulation is amended to: "Types of aircraft imported into Vietnam must be issued or recognized by the US Federal Aviation Authority, the European Aviation Safety Agency, the Chinese aviation authority, the Brazilian aviation authority, the Canadian aviation authority, the Russian Federation aviation authority, the United Kingdom aviation authority or the Vietnamese aviation authority must issue or recognize aircraft type certificates".

The Ministry of Construction explained that: currently, legal regulations do not allow Chinese aircraft to be imported into Vietnam because regulations only allow the import of aircraft that have been certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration, the European Aviation Safety Agency, or the Vietnamese aviation authorities.

The case where the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (aviation authority) issues a type certificate can only be carried out when Vietnam is the designing country and the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam develops and promulgates the standards, and has sufficient qualified human resources to ensure the implementation of the type certificate approval process.

It takes many years to develop standards, perfect processes and prepare sufficient human resources (FAA needs 8 years to issue type certification for Boeing 787 aircraft, EASA needs 8 years to issue type certification for Airbus A350 aircraft).

According to the Ministry of Construction, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, wars in some regions of the world , and some technical problems of aircraft around the world, the supply chain of aircraft and materials in full and timely manner from aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing has been affected.

The reduction in the supply of short-range jet aircraft significantly affects Vietnam's aircraft operations.

Therefore, limiting the aircraft operating in Vietnam to only those with type certificates issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam or the FAA or EASA, without allowing aircraft with type certificates issued by other countries or allowing aircraft recognized by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, will limit the opportunities for airlines to access aircraft designed and manufactured by other countries with global capacity in science and technology.

Since 2006, the Vietnamese aviation industry has been operating aircraft types certified by 6 aviation authorities, including:

Federal Aviation Administration with Boeing, Gulf Stream, Cesna C206 aircraft.

European Aviation Safety Agency with Airbus, ATR 72, Falcon, some helicopters.

Brazilian Aviation Administration with Embraer 145, 190 aircraft.

Transport Canada with Bell 505, Bombadier CRJ 900 aircraft.

Russian Federal Aviation Authority for Mi 17/172 helicopter.

The reason why Brazilian, Canadian and Russian aircraft are imported and operated in Vietnam is because these countries have bilateral agreements on mutual recognition of procedures, standards for airworthiness and type certification and manufacturing processes for aircraft of each manufacturing country.

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TUAN PHUNG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/lay-y-kien-sua-nghi-dinh-de-khai-thac-may-bay-trung-quoc-tai-viet-nam-20250402175727315.htm