A plan to build an airport with an estimated cost of over US$260 million in the south-central resort city of Phan Thiet has won in-principle approval from Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
The Phan Thiet airport will be located in Thien Nghiep Commune in Phan Thiet, the capital city of Binh Thuan Province.
The terminal, which will be used for both civil and military purposes, will be constructed under the BOT (build-operate-transfer) scheme, economic newswire VnEconomy said in an article last month.
The Prime Minister has assigned the administration of Binh Thuan Province to cooperate with relevant agencies to develop feasibility studies on the project, according to the Vietnamese-language website.
The airport is expected to span 360.33 hectares in its initial phase, ending by 2020, and will be expanded to 543 hectares by 2030.
In its first phase, the terminal is projected to serve 500,000 passengers and handle 10,000 metric tons of goods a year. It is hoped that it will receive one million passengers annually by 2030.
Total investment is estimated at VND5.6 trillion (US$263.58 million) and the airport is expected to open to passengers by 2017, according to economic newswire The Saigon Times Online.
Rang Dong Group, an infrastructure developer headquartered in Phan Thiet, has called on the Binh Thuan administration to allow it to develop the facility.
The airport will help boost tourism development for Binh Thuan, home to the famed resort city of Phan Thiet and the world-renowned Mui Ne beach.
Phan Thiet is 202.5 km, a four- or five-hour drive, from Ho Chi Minh City.
It will take only 45 minutes to fly between the two cities, as well as with services connecting Phan Thiet to other resort cities such as Nha Trang or Da Nang in the central region.
Mui Ne, a tropical beach that travel guide publisher Lonely Planet describes as “too beautiful to be ignored,” appeals to tourists thanks to its white-sand beaches and the strong sea breezes that make it very popular for kitesurfing and windsurfing.
The Mui Ne resort town in Phan Thiet is also known as the “Russian Village” or “Vietnam’s Moscow,” as Russian holidaymakers outnumber those from other countries.
Binh Thuan received around 61,000 Russian tourists within the first four months of 2014, according to the provincial Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
Vietnam currently has 21 operating airports, including eight international terminals.
Many other airport projects have also been planned, and some localities are slated to have as many as two airports, according to VnEconomy.
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