NGHỆ AN – The People’s Committee of central Nghệ An Province has proposed that the Ministry of Transport and relevant authorities upgrade an old terminal at the Vinh Airport into an international one.

Nguyễn Xuân Đường, chairman of the provincial People’s Committee said that the current terminal at Vinh Airport, which was designed to receive three million passengers a year, was put into operation last January.

However, the terminal has only served seven domestic flights from Vinh City to Hà Nội, HCM City, Đà Nẵng, Buôn Ma Thuột, Đà Lạt, Nha Trang and Pleiku. No international flights have been planned so far.

In the meantime, the provincial committee has managed to launch an international flight from Vinh City to Thailand’s Bangkok and vice versa this month. As scheduled, there would be two flights per month.

Đường said to serve the first international flight to Vinh City, the Vinh Airport has taken advantage of an old temporary terminal, which was built in 2013 on an area of 800 square metres.

The one-storey terminal has become overloaded due to the large number of passengers to Bangkok, adversely affecting the airport’s service quality and security.

Đường said another international flight from Vinh City to Singapore was scheduled to operate by the end of this year and one more flight from Vinh City to Japan would be launched next year.

Thus, it was necessary to upgrade the terminal to meet the development needs of Vinh City, he said.

The current terminal of the Vinh Airport in central Nghệ An Province has a total floor area of 11,700 square metres, including four boarding gates, 28 check-in counters and other facilities meeting international standards.

The terminal served up to 1,000 passengers at peak hours. Total investment for the construction of the terminal and expansion projects was worth VNĐ1.2 trillion (US$54 million), invested by Airports Corporation of Việt Nam. -- VNS