Thursday, November 23, 2023
Huyen is helping to change that now as an operation specialist at the state-owned Airports Corporation of Vietnam.
Technological face-lifts are just one part of the national plan to construct or upgrade airports all over the country. The strategy: If we build, tourists will come and so will trade.
A master plan signed in June calls for 30 airports by 2030, up from 23 now.
Even as this flies in the face of carbon reduction pledges, supporters of the plan say expansion must keep pace with the rising middle class and manufacturing sector.
It’s a big benefit to the Vietnamese economy. It is also contributing to the supply chain and export infrastructure, Huyen told a media..
Few would prefer the status quo. At the biggest airport, Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City, passengers are bussed to airplanes more often than not due to a lack of gates.
Tourists spend hours at security and passport control even when leaving the country.
These are the strains of a facility operating far beyond capacity. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the inefficiencies are holding back the economy.
Vietnam next year is likely to see double the 25 million flyers its airport was designed to handle. A news outlet reported in September.
The aviation master plan is aimed at two sectors- the supply chains moving to Vietnam and the travel industry. It relies on the country’s tropical beaches, food and history to lure visitors.
Vietnam’s tourism industry is still recovering from COVID and the restrictions put in place to squelch the pandemic.
As more travelers head to Vietnam, though, overloaded airports are not the face the country wants to show them.
The master plan includes a $4 billion Hanoi airport expansion, a third terminal at Tan Son Nhat and an entirely new second airport for the southern city.
A person dubbed Long Thanh, told a news media that its biggest challenge will be linking it efficiently to downtown Ho Chi Minh City.
It is 40 kilometers away, so airlines won’t refuse to fly there.
The person also said most of Vietnam’s airports are over capacity.
But carbon emissions from flights are 100 times the amount from train, bus or shared car rides, according to a study in the journal Science.
Air travel is even more inefficient on the short-haul flights that dominate Vietnam, where trips can take 40 minutes. The country aims to hit net-zero emissions by 2050.
“When airports are continuously constructed in neighboring provinces and cities, air transportation between these provinces will raise emissions,” University of Transport and Communications lecturer Nguyen Minh Hieu told Nikkei.
Still, businesses see opportunities ahead. France Aviation Civile Services had an air traffic control contract with Tan Son Nhat, and project manager Marc Alvarez was in town last week scouting deals with other airports.
Vietnam “said they need to train more people because of the growth, so we can [offer] support with that,” he said in an interview at the France-Vietnam Airport Conference.
Another of the dozen French companies that sent representatives was JCDecaux, which provides airport advertising. Olivier Heroguelle, a managing director, told Nikkei, “When we look at investing in Vietnam, it’s not for the five years to come, but for decades.”
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