The Ministry of Transport has ordered Middle Airports Corp. (MAC) to speed up construction of a new passenger terminal at Danang International Airport in central Vietnam as this project has fallen far behind schedule.

Deputy transport minister Ngo Thinh Duc told MAC to complete the project before December 31 as the ministry wanted to ease overload at the current terminal. The new terminal project is now in its final stage and is nearly two years behind schedule. Therefore, Duc said MAC should work with contractors to mobilize more resources to complete the project by the end of this year.

 

Earlier this year, MAC announced on its website that the new facility would go online in the second quarter of this year but has not been able to realize this target due to issues regarding management capacity, as pointed out at a meeting between the deputy minister and the corporation last month. The new terminal requires initial investment capital of US$74 million and was designed to handle up to six million passengers and from 400,000 to one million tons of cargo a year.

 

Currently, Danang Airport receives domestic flights operated by Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific as well as the international services by SilkAir. This is one of the seven domestic and international airports in the Central and Central Highlands regions under management of MAC.

 

Besides Danang, MAC operates other international airports such as Phu Bai in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Cam Ranh in Khanh Hoa and Chu Lai in Quang Nam, and domestic airports Phu Cat in Binh Dinh and Tuy Hoa in Phu Yen. The corporation targets year-on-year rises of 12.7% in passengers going through these airports to more than five million and 7.6% in cargo volume to over 18,900 tons.

 

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) is preparing a zoning plan for an airport in the central province of Quang Tri as outlined in a master air transport development plan until 2020.

 

The master plan envisages 26 airports, with the new ones planned for Quang Tri, Kon Tum, Thanh Hoa, Phan Thiet, An Giang and Lai Chau. The locations of the new airports in this plan include Vung Tau, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai and Ca Mau.