HÀ NỘI — FLC Group will build a complex of commercial aviation services, tourism resorts, industrial sites and hi-tech agriculture in the central province of Thanh Hóa’s Thọ Xuân District between 2018 and 2023.

The plan was discussed at a meeting between FLC and the province’s leaders on Wednesday.

The complex is expected to cover an area of 3,700 hectares with an investment of VNĐ10 trillion (US$430 million) in the first phase. The group has a plan to build the complex to international standards. It will take advantage of Thọ Xuân Airport in the district.

Bamboo Airways received an aviation business licence from the Ministry of Transport a day before, becoming Việt Nam’s fifth airline after Vietnam Airlines, budget operators Jetstar Pacific and Vietjet Air and Việt Nam Air Service (VASCO).

FLC’s chairman Trịnh Văn Quyết said domestic aircraft repair services meet only 10 per cent of the demand and the remaining repairs are done overseas. The project will partly meet the needs of Bamboo Airways and will repair aircrafts in the region.

There will also be a centre to train students in the aviation sector.  Bamboo Airways alone will need at least 1,000 flight attendants and 500 pilots by 2019. However, all of them were sent overseas for training. If there were an academy, the cost of training would be reduced by at least 30 per cent.

The group targeted co-operating with big aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing to build spare part plants and even aircraft assembly line. However, project implementation would depend on land clearance of 3,000ha from the province.

Nguyễn Đình Xứng, chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said the committee would accelerate land clearance and provide favourable water, electricity, transport infrastructure and administrative conditions for the project.

FLC said that as soon as it is handed the first 60ha from the province in early 2019 it will start construction of the complex.

The chairman granted a certificate to FLC Group to establish a branch of Bamboo Airways in Thanh Hoá Province. Thanh Hoá has been one of localities to which FLC has tried to bring both local and foreign tourists by air travel. — VNS