Van Don International Airport, the first privately-invested airport in Vietnam under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) form at a cost of over VND7,500 billion and opened in late 2018. Since its operation, Van Don International Airport has demonstrated its important role in Quang Ninh transport infrastructure, acting as the driving force and a vital transport gateway connecting Vietnam’s Quang Ninh to the region and the world.
Designed to be a grade 4E airport in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards and a military airfield level 2, Van Don International Airport is capable of accommodating large aircrafts such as Boeing 787, 777 and Airbus A350, A320. It contains one terminal with a capacity of 2.5 million passengers and 10,000 cargo tons per year in the first phase. The airport project is comprised in the planning for 10 international airports under national civil aviation network and military airports in the Northern strategy approved by the Prime Minister under the Decision No. 236 / QD-TTg dated 23/2/2018.
According to the Airport’s Management Board, currently, there are three leading Vietnam’s carriers namely Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet and Bamboo Airways operating air routes via the Van Don International Airport with a frequency of two flights per day. After over four months of operation, there have been 550 flights with nearly 70,000 passenger arrivals via the airport. All the passengers were satisfied with the modern, unique architecture of the airport featuring Quang Ninh tourism.
In January of 2019, Quang Ninh province cooperated with the airport's main investor to organize the Market Promotion Conference with the participation of more than 60 domestic and foreign airlines as well as travel agents. To support the airport’s operation, Quang Ninh offered passengers promotion program including discount in ground service fees, free entrance to Yen Tu relic site, Ha Long Bay Natural Heritage site and Bai Tu Long Bay, free bus tickets departing from the airport to Ha Long, Cam Pha cities and vice versa. All of those above mentioned works has contributed to develop Van Don International Airport into an important international gateway of Quang Ninh that closely links to a series of key transportation projects, in line with developing attractive tourism products in order to continue raising the proportion of the service - tourism industry in economic development, and to turn Quang Ninh into a world-class service and tourism center.
By implementing a variety proactive solutions, the image of Van Don International Airport has gradually become more popular with many carriers and tourism enterprises as well as passengers. It is now in the global flight route map. Currently, many airlines are considering the cooperation plan with the airport and develop new air routes to Van Don, contributing to connect Quang Ninh to the region and the world.
As scheduled, the first flight which departs from China’s Shenzhen city to Van Don International Airport will be officially launched on May 27, and followed by the ones from Van Don to Nanning city, Incheon (Korea) and Taiwan in June. In October, the airport shall connect to Thailand, and open a direct flight to Japan in December of 2019. Regarding the inbound flight, besides Van Don- Ho Chi Minh city route with a frequency of two flights per day, Van Don-Da Nang, Van Don-PhuQuoc, Van Don-NhaTrang routes are being considered to open in the third quarter of the year.
In the context of the rapid growth of air traffic in the world, and the fact that Quang Ninh attached high attention to develop synchronous infrastructure system and allure investment into the province, therefore, Van Don International Airport could be an important drive to attract investors. The proactive implementation of robust measures to develop the airport, and the opening of new domestic and international routes have shown Quang Ninh's innovation in its development process.
By Hue Linh
