Newsmakers
Investors welcomed to “The Party”
November 1st 2015
Asia-Pacific emerging economy, Vietnam, is a communist state, but its government is bent on bringing more capitalism into aviation, including an initiative that a few years ago would have been almost improbable - selling 25% of its shares in the country’s air regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV). Read More »
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CAAV’s deputy director, airport management department, Nguyen Duong, told delegates at the Southeast Asia Airport Expansion Summit in Hanoi: “I hope that in the very near future, we will see the participation of private and foreign investors in airport development, as well as the aviation industry in Vietnam. This is the way things should go.”
A new aviation law, which took effect on July 1, aimed to promote the role of private investors, he added.
Vietnam’s rapid airline expansion is pressuring the government to provide better airport infrastructure, a demand that requires the financing knowhow of the private sector. Between 2010 and 2014, Vietnam’s domestic passenger growth averaged 12% annually, with yearly numbers rising from 21.07 million passengers to 33.16 million.
Growth at some international airports rose spectacularly. Cam Ranh grew at 25.5% per year, Vinh at 34.8% and Phu Quoc at 24.7%. Small and Vietnamese air force controlled Tho Xuan airport, in northern Vietnam, experienced 70.5% annual growth in the last two years.
Freight grew at 12.67% a year, with annual cargo traffic climbing from 460,000 tonnes to more than 741,000 tonnes, in a period when the sector is faltering in the region.
Vietnam has 22 airports, which will increase to 26 by 2020. Duong said flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines (VNA), has changed from a state utility to a joint stock company, and airport businesses would also be privatised “sooner or later”. The CAAV would be no exception, he said.
Earlier this year, VNA, budget carrier, Vietjet, and some private businesses asked to buy the operational rights to a terminal at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi. Other investors are understood to be interested in buying Phu Quoc Airport in the country’s south.
