Vietnam allows 5 provinces to plan PPP airport investments

The Ministry of Transport has given five provinces the go ahead to draft plans for investing in airports under the public-private partnership (PPP) format.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), the approval applies to the following airports: Na San airport in the northern province of Son La; Tho Xuan airport in the central province of Thanh Hoa; Vinh airport in the central province of Nghe An; Chu Lai airport in the central province of Quang Nam; and Lien Khuong airport in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.

For Tho Xuan and Chu Lai airports, provincial authorities can draft plans to build second runways in addition to the existing ones managed by the Ministry of National Defense for military activities. The goal is to have civil aviation activities uninterrupted by defense ministry operations, the CAAV said.

Runways and taxiways managed by the defense ministry will have state budget priority. In case that does not suffice, local authorities can study the option of building these facilities under the built-transfer-operate (BTO) format.

Regarding Na San, Vinh and Lien Khuong, the transport ministry asked provinces to build plans of making investment under the PPP format or let the state-run Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) establish subsidiaries as operators of the airports.

The PPP format had been proposed for building or upgrading several other airports earlier, including Than Son in the central province of Ninh Thuan; Can Tho in the eponymous Mekong Delta city; Moc Chau in the northern province of Son La; an unnamed one in the northern province of Lai Chau; and Quang Tri in the eponymous central province.

In June this year, the Prime Minister approved the national airport plan for 2021-2030 with vision until 2050 under which Vietnam would expand its current airport network from 22 to 30 by 2030, and to 33 by 2050. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City would remain the two aviation hubs in the country, while the overall target would be to have 97% of the population to have access to airports within 100 kilometers.

The plan mentions an estimated investment outlay of VND420 trillion ($17.88 billion). For new airports, the public-private partnership (PPP) model will be prioritized. For operational airports, expansions and upgrades could follow the PPP or other investment models. Airports of national importance, military airports and airports in border areas and islands will receive priority in terms of state resources.