In the afternoon of June 14, a working delegation of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam led by Mr. Uong Viet Dung - Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam - surveyed the field at the planned airport construction locations in the province.
The working group inspected position No. 7 in Thach An commune and position No. 6 in Tan Giang ward. According to preliminary assessment, these are two locations with many favorable conditions for designing flight methods and implementing projects in the future.
After surveying, the working group analyzed the options and oriented the selection of location No. 6 in Tan Giang ward as a more feasible option thanks to its convenience in connecting with the Bac Kan - Cao Bang expressway and the Dong Dang - Tra Linh expressway.
According to the People's Committee of Cao Bang province, immediately after the survey, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam will have an assessment document sent to the locality to complete the planning dossier, and at the same time consider adjusting the scale of Cao Bang Airport from level 4C to level 4E.
Previously, Cao Bang province proposed to the Ministry of Construction to study, comprehensively assess and consider adjusting the scale of the airport.
According to local authorities, the scale of level 4C is defined in the Overall Plan for the development of the national airport system for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050, which does not meet the long-term development requirements of the province.
Level 4C airports are capable of receiving narrow-body aircraft such as Airbus A320, A321 or Boeing 737, mainly serving short-haul domestic and international routes.
Meanwhile, the 4E-class airport can operate wide-body aircraft such as Boeing 777, Boeing 787, Airbus A330, Airbus A350 with runways over 3,000 m long, meeting international routes and large-scale freight transport.
Cao Bang provincial leaders believe that investing in an airport according to 4E standards from the beginning will help improve inter-regional and international inter-transport connectivity capacity, and at the same time be suitable for the expressway system being deployed in the area.
This option is also assessed as having long-term advantages in reducing costs of upgrading and expansion later, meeting the needs of cross-border logistics development and effectively exploiting the local tourism potential.
According to preliminary research by the province, the areas planned for airport planning have sufficient land fund and terrain conditions to arrange runways from 3,000 - 3,500 m long, meeting level 4E airport standards without significantly increasing site clearance costs compared to level 4C plan.
According to the national airport system plan, by 2050, the whole country is expected to have 33 airports, of which Cao Bang Airport is one of the airports added to the national airport network.
