A Race Against Time: Long Thanh Airport – A 2025 Vision

6 December, 2024

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The Prime Minister has instructed that Long Thanh Airport must be completed by 2025 and be operational by February 28, 2026. – Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The Long Thanh International Airport is the largest airport project in Vietnam to date and is of great significance to the socioeconomic development of the Southeast region and the entire country.

This is the fifth time that the Prime Minister has inspected the airport project site, following his visits during the Lunar New Year holidays in 2022, 2023, and 2024, and in September 2024. After the inspection, the Prime Minister chaired a meeting with relevant ministries, agencies, and local authorities.

Long Thanh Airport Must Be Completed by 2025

According to reports at the meeting, from September 2024 (the Prime Minister’s most recent visit) to the present, just over two months later, many items and constructions have achieved significant progress.

The agencies have reported to the National Assembly on the approval of the adjustment to the project, including the addition of a second runway, the extension of the project implementation period until December 31, 2026, and the authorization for the government to approve the adjusted feasibility report within its competence.

Component Project 2 – the air traffic control tower has completed the reinforced concrete structure and is constructing the expansion of the tower from the 15th floor. Component Project 3 – the passenger terminal has completed 100% of the entire reinforced concrete structure and is in the process of completion (main frame fabrication reached 56%, and installation reached 35%). The runway has constructed the graded crushed stone and cement concrete base course layer by 71.44% and the cement concrete surface by 40.32%… which is three months ahead of schedule compared to the contract.

Thus, the constructions and component projects are basically on schedule, with some even ahead of schedule, especially the projects under the Investment of the Airport Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) (passenger terminal, runway, taxiway, and apron). However, achieving the goal of completing the project by 2025 (earlier than the National Assembly’s permission) is a significant challenge and requires all levels, sectors, investors, and contractors to make great efforts to shorten the timeline for the packages.

In terms of transportation connections, the Ministry of Transport stated that in the first phase, Long Thanh Airport is expected to serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo annually, with 70-80% of international flights. According to the plan, there will be two modes of transportation connecting to/from Long Thanh Airport, including five road routes and three railway routes.

Since September 2024 (the Prime Minister’s most recent visit to the site), many items and constructions of Long Thanh Airport have achieved significant progress in just over two months. – Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The road routes include: Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway, Ring Road 3 of Ho Chi Minh City, Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway (these three projects are under construction and expected to be completed in 2025-2026), Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh Expressway (currently operating with four lanes, expected to be expanded to 8-10 lanes), and Ring Road 4 of Ho Chi Minh City (investment policy has been submitted).

Regarding the railway routes, there will be the high-speed railway on the North-South route from Thu Thiem to Long Thanh (the National Assembly has just approved the investment policy, expected to start construction in 2027 and be completed in 2035), the Thu Thiem-Long Thanh light rail route is expected to be submitted to the competent authorities in 2025, and the urban railway (Ho Chi Minh City is submitting to the competent authorities a proposal for mobilizing resources to invest synchronously in urban railway routes, including this route).

Concluding the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh appreciated the positive results achieved in the project implementation. Overall, the project has completed a large volume of work, and the shape of the work has become clearer; many packages have progressed ahead of schedule, especially Component Projects 2 and 3, with more than 6,000 workers and 2,200 construction equipment on the site.

Despite these positive results, land clearance work remains at over 1% (the clearance for transportation connections has been completed). Component Project 4 (other works such as cargo terminal) is progressing slowly, and the Ministry of Transport is in the process of selecting investors. Component Project 1 (headquarters of state management agencies) has not yet arranged capital, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has not completed the approval procedures for the investment policy of the item of headquarters of the plant and animal quarantine agency.

Moving forward, with the spirit of “clear tasks, clear responsibilities, clear timelines, and clear products,” the Prime Minister emphasized that time, intelligence, and decisiveness at the right time are the keys to success. He instructed that all tasks must be completed by December 31, 2025, and Long Thanh Airport must be operational by February 28, 2026, to make up for the delayed progress, and there must be no further delays.

Hai Au