VietNamNet Bridge – “Cranky” and “lacking everything” are the words used to describe the current situation of Phu Cat airport in Binh Dinh, Cam Ranh airport in Khanh Hoa and Chu Lai airport in Quang Nam province. This explains why the airports keep quiet all year round.
It was very gloomy at the Phu Cat airport in the afternoon. There was only one flight from HCM City to Phu Cat – an ATR72 with just 48 passengers. It got noisy when the passengers got out of the aircraft and followed necessary procedures at the airport. However, it got quiet again very quickly after the passengers left.
Tran Van Trien, Director of the Phu Cat airport, said that this was one of the most bustling days. In 2011, the number of passengers going through the airport increased to 220,000, while the figure was 80.000 only four years ago.
The airport that cannot serve night flights
Currently, the Phu Cat airport has five flights a day, including four on Phu Cat – HCM City – Phu Cat route, and one on Phu Cat – Hanoi – Phu Cat with ATR72, A320,and A321.
Established in 1976 under the name of Quy Nhon airport, in 2004, the airport, which then changed the name into Phu Cat built a terminal with the capacity of 300 passengers per hour. With the capacity, the terminal can only serve two flights at the same time.
“In the conditions of bad weather, like on the days just before Tet, when four flights tried to land at the same time, the terminal could not serve,” Trien said.
Also according to Trien, the airport now has 10 square kilometers contiguous to a residential quarter. Since there is no fence, animals sometimes enter the airport to “walk” on the runway. Some days ago, an officer even discovered a herd of dogs on the runway when an airplane was going to take off.
While the airport is still poorly equipped, the Binh Dinh provincial authorities still keep a long term vision about the importance of the airport.
“We have proposed the Ministry of Transport to instruct to develop the airport into an international airport,” said Le Huu Loc, Chair of Binh Dinh province.
Lacking everything
Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang has pointed out that the Cam Ranh airport in Khanh Hoa, which is now one of the five international airports in Vietnam, is still lacking many things in accordance with ICAO standards. It lacks fire trucks, has no water pumping vehicles, has no fresh water, the runway has been degrading, has no foreign exchange counter, and has no fixed international routes.
There are only two fire trucks at the airport which are just enough to extinguish fire for small aircraft, while there is no truck for bigger aircraft.
A representative of Anh Duong Company, which specializes in bringing Russian travelers to Vietnam, said that the company once intended to carry travelers with big aircrafts such as Boeing 777. However, as the Cam Ranh airport does not have conditions to receive the aircraft, it had to carry passengers with smaller aircraft.
Cam Ranh now consumes 100 cubic meters of fresh water every day, but there is no clean water supply system there. The water has been pumped from the three wells and no one can be sure about the quality of the water.
Drive buffalo's away before aircraft land
There are special officers working for the Chu Lai airport in Quang Nam province. As there is no fence that separates the airport and the residential quarters, buffalo's usually “visit” the airport without any obstacles. Therefore, the airport has to ask its officers to be present at the runway. The officers’ duty is to drive buffalos away to prepare for aircraft to land or take off.
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