Northern Quang Ninh Province has issued a document to promote markets and flights from/to Van Don International Airport.

Under Document No 7704/UBND-DL1, the provincial People’s Committee asked the Department of Transport to complete procedures on planning and investments at the airport as well as hasten progress to put the project into operation before April 1, 2018.

The Department of Tourism would develop a market promotion plan for the airport and report it to the provincial People’s Committee before the end of this month.

The province urged Van Don Investment and Development Jsc - Sun Group, the project’s investor, to complete legal procedures to put the airport into operation and actively cooperate with carriers such as Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet for support and consultancy on the first flights. In addition, the developer must study and raise policies to encourage carriers to start flights to Van Don.

The airport started construction in 2015 under the build-operate-transfer model with total investment of VND7.5 trillion (US$329 million), of which the province invested VND700 billion for land clearance.

In February, the Prime Minister gave his nod to the policy to upscale the airport from a domestic to international airport.

To date, a 3.6km runway is nearly complete and the developer is hastening the construction of other works to put the airport into operation by April 2018.

Van Don International Airport is considered an important infrastructure project of the Van Don Special Economic Zone.

In July, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc gave his nod to develop Van Don into a special administrative-economic unit (special economic zone) of the northern region.

Deputy Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Thanh at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue in August said Van Don had attracted total investment of VND36 trillion to development infrastructure projects. — VNS