Con Dao Airport currently only operates ATR 72 aircraft - Photo: NGUYEN CONG THANH
The Ministry of Transport said so when responding to the petition of voters of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province about measures to increase flights to Con Dao airport to facilitate people and tourists to Con Dao district.
More airlines operating to Con Dao airport will reduce ticket shortage
According to the Ministry of Transport, due to limited infrastructure at Con Dao airport, it cannot receive large aircraft such as Airbus A320, A321, but can only receive aircraft such as ATR 72, Embraer E190. Therefore, exploitation to Con Dao airport is somewhat limited.
After Bamboo Airways stopped operating the Hanoi - Con Dao route using Embraer aircraft to restructure, currently only Vietnam Airlines and VASCO (a branch of Vietnam Airlines) are using ATR72 aircraft to operate the Con Dao - Ho Chi Minh City route with a frequency of 16 round trips/day, and the Con Dao - Can Tho route with a frequency of 5 round trips/week.
This has reduced the number of tickets available on flights to/from Con Dao, especially during peak times such as festivals and tourist seasons.
At that time, demand exceeded supply, causing airfares to/from Con Dao to always remain high.
However, through checking the ticket sales activities of airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority recorded that airfares on flights to Con Dao comply with regulations on domestic airfare frames.
The Ministry of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority have created favorable conditions for Vietnam Airlines to increase its operations to Con Dao. At the same time, Vietnam Airlines and other airlines are required to actively seek aircraft types suitable for Con Dao airport infrastructure and study plans to operate flights to Con Dao.
According to the ministry, the operation of other airlines to/from Con Dao will contribute to increasing the capacity of the routes, adding more choices of air services for passengers. Thereby, contributing to solving the shortage of tickets during some peak periods, better meeting the travel needs of the people.
Proposal to upgrade but not extend Con Dao airport runway
According to the Ministry of Transport, the runway and taxiway of Con Dao airport built in 2004 have degraded.
The current runway is 1,830m long but 30m wide, which does not meet the standards for operating code C aircraft such as Airbus A320, A321, and can only operate aircraft such as ATR72 and equivalent (Embraer E190, E195 with reduced load).
If the runway of Con Dao airport is extended about 860m out to sea (to the east) to reach a length of 2,400m to fully exploit commercial load with Airbus A321 aircraft, the estimated cost is over 10,000 billion VND.
Because the above plan is complicated, costly, and has a large impact on the environment, the Ministry of Transport hired international consulting firm ADPi (France) to survey the investment plan for Con Dao airport.
Through research, ADPi has referenced a number of airports in the world with runway configurations similar to Con Dao airport but with larger operating capacity and made recommendations: the current runway length (1,830m) of Con Dao airport is enough to receive and effectively operate most types of code C aircraft such as Airbus A320, Boeing 737, Embraer E190, E195, except for A321 aircraft that must have reduced commercial payload.
ADPi Consulting recommends that airlines should operate medium-sized code C aircraft such as Aibus A320, A319, Boeing B737... to ensure the highest operational efficiency as well as infrastructure investment efficiency.
However, to ensure runway exploitation capacity, it is necessary to build a refueling area and parallel taxiways to increase capacity by 50%, even with the operating fleet (ATR72 and E190); add works to ensure safety during exploitation...
Previously, in October 2021, the Ministry of Transport approved the investment policy for the project to renovate and upgrade the runway and taxiway of Con Dao airport with a total investment of about 1,680 billion VND from the state budget for the period 2021-2025.
The project will expand and upgrade the existing runway by maintaining the length of 1,830m, expanding the runway from 30m to 45m; building a new parallel taxiway and connecting taxiways; investing in a synchronous landing equipment system to effectively exploit code C aircraft such as Airbus A319, A320, B737.
Because the project's investment scale is basically consistent with the ADPi consultant's recommendations, the Ministry of Transport recommends that the Prime Minister continue to implement the project using public investment capital to soon put code C aircraft into operation, serving people's travel needs, ensuring absolute safety of operation.
The Ministry of Transport said that currently, some airlines are studying the plan to operate flights to Con Dao using aircraft such as Airbus A320 and Embraer E190. Vietjet plans to lease Embraer E190 aircraft for operation, after the airport is upgraded, it will operate Airbus A320 aircraft. Vietnam Airlines plans to operate Airbus A320 aircraft in the future.
According to airlines, in order to effectively exploit the above aircraft types, it is necessary to soon expand the runway and increase the load-bearing capacity of the road surface structure.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/yeu-cau-cac-hang-tim-kiem-loai-may-bay-phu-hop-ha-tang-san-bay-con-dao-20240816124637467.htm
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