A new airport, to be located in Phan Thiet City in central Binh Thuan Province, is expected to attract more tourists to the resort area when it opens in 2017.—VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY (Biz Hub)— A new airport, to be located in Phan Thiet City in central Binh Thuan Province, is expected to attract more tourists to the resort area when it opens in 2017, according to the People's Committee of Binh Thuan.

The airport, which will cost over VND5.6 trillion (US$265 million), would be located in Thien Nghiep, a coastal commune near Mui Ne beach, where tourism is on the rise.

The Phan Thiet Airport would be able to accommodate smaller planes like the Fokker 70s and ATR72, and would provide services to 500,000 passengers per year. It will also have a landing area for helicopters.

Capital for airport construction will come partly from the transfer of land to other purposes for the Nha Trang Airport, which will no longer be used for aviation.

Other sources of investment will come from the developer of the project, a joint venture between Company 319 under the Defence Ministry and Thanh Dong, a property investment joint-stock company.

News about the plan for the new airport in Phan Thiet was released after a recent meeting between the Binh Thuan People's Committee and a working team composed of staff from the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Transport.

The agreement was reached after the working team, which negotiated with local authorities in Binh Thuan, released a study on the new airport, including the direction of the runway, Dinh Viet Thang, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam, was quoted as saying by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Binh Thuan has included the 500-ha plot of land slated for airport use in its main land-use plan until 2020. The plan has been submitted to the central government for approval.

The airport's capacity would be raised to 1 million passengers per year by 2030, with equipment and facilities to accommodate medium-sized aircraft such as A320s, A321s and B319s.

The working team from the ministries agreed with the Binh Thuan provincial authority to use the airport for both civil and military purposes.

Thang said the new airport would not be located on the same site as the military airport in Phan Thiet City's Tien Thanh Commune.

Expansion on the grounds of the existing military airport, which is in downtown Phan Thiet, would cause environmental problems for the city, he said.

Thang said construction of the new airport in Phan Thiet would not affect investments in the international Long Thanh Airport in southern Dong Nai Province, as capital for the two airports will come from different sources. —VNS