Van Don International Airport flies high

Van Don International Airport has realized the province’s aspiration of connecting with the world faster and proved its efficiency right at its initial operation. 

In 2012, at an investment promotion meeting, many experts and investors said that an international airport was the needed infrastructure in Quang Ninh to promote provincial economy.

After the meeting, Quang Ninh decided to popularize the Government’s preferential policies for the province and provincial advantages to call for airport investment. For a short time, some investors came and SunGroup was chosen. 

In Sept, 2015, the construction of Van Don International Airport started. The first privately-funded airport nationwide opens new development for aviation in Vietnam. With desire to build an international airport, Quang Ninh reached agreement with the investor to ask for readjustment of detailed planning of Van Don International Airport. The requirement was approved on Mar 17, 2018 to turn the airport into one of Vietnam’s 10 international airports

9 months later, Van Don International Airport officially opened with the first commercial flight on Dec 30th, 2018. Then 5 months later, on Apr 27th, 2019, Van Don International Airport received the first international flight from Shenzhen City in China.

Standing Vice Chairman of Quang Ninh People's Committee, Dang Huy Hau, welcomed passengers on the first commercial flight to Van Don International Airport

For 5 months of operation, Van Don International Airport has operated 2 international routes, to and from Shenzhen (China) and Seoul (South Korea). This is considered a great success as it normally takes an airport 3-5 years to operate international flights after official opening.

During this period, fights to and from Van Don are mostly charter services with 4 flights a week.

To develop Van Don International Airport into an important international gateway, Quang Ninh worked with the investor to organize a market promotion meeting with the participations of more than 60 domestic and international airlines and travel agents, offering incentive, like reducing ground service fees, free tickets to Ha Long bay and Yen Tu Relics, fee 2-way buses from the airport to Van Don, Cam Pha, Ha Long

It is expected that Van Don – Taiwan service (Bamboo Airways) will open by the end of June, 2019, Van Don – Hainan, Nanning service (Donghai Airlines) by July, 2019, Van Don-Japan and Bangkok service by Nov 2019. The flights to and from Europe will be available in 2020.

Van Don International Airport has realized the province’s aspiration of connecting with the world faster and proved its efficiency right at its initial operation. This will make a turning point for the development of Quang Ninh’s tourism sector and open up new space for international cooperation. 

Translated by Quynh Trang