Experts have suggested building an international airport in the northern province of Hai Duong which can serve 40-50mil passengers a year.
The participants at the workshop on urban development programming which took place recently in Hai Duong Province, all came to the conclusion that it was necessary to build up an international airport more in the north of the country, which will give an impetus to the development of the local economy.
According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen The Ba, Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Development Programming Association, Vietnam has many airports already, but they just play important roles in the economic development in their localities. An international airport with the capacity of 40-50mil passengers a year will have much more importance to the national economy.
Mr Ba added that nearly all investors he met expressed their readiness to make investments in the northern part of the country if there is a big international airport.
The idea by the urban development programmers has been applauded by aviation experts. According to Colonel Pham Vu Nghi, former Head of the Institute for Airport and Aviation Works Designing, said that the existing Noi Bai airport, though it has been expanded several times, cannot meet the requirements of a high-class international airport.
Noi Bai airport should be used as a reserve airport only, and it is just the airport of a city, while he said that the international airport will be the centre of the Hanoi – Hai Phong – Quang Ninh economic triangle.
Mr Nghi said that the international airport has to serve 60-80mil passengers a year, cover an area of 3-4,000 ha and have an estimated investment capital of $4-5bil.
Mr Ba said that now was the right time to programme the setting up of such an international airport, because it will take some 15 years to put an airport into operation. It would be better if the airport becomes operational in 2020, when Vietnam becomes an industrially developed country with increased demand for passenger and goods transport, and for economic development.
Mr Nghi shared the same idea on the time to put the airport into operation, adding that by 2015-2020, the existing Noi Bai airport will be overloaded.
Prof. Dr. Lam Quang Cuong from the Hanoi Construction University also said that the big cities with more than 2mil people, like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Seoul, all have one or two international airports. The airports must not be near to the cities’ centres, they may be 40-75 km from the cities’ centres.
The participants said that Hai Duong province proved to be the most suitable location for setting up the international airport, as it is located in the centre of the Hanoi – Hai Phong – Quang Ninh economic triangle.
