Van Don Airport welcomes its first international flight

Van Don International Airport in the northern province of Quang Ninh welcomed the first international flight coded DZ62249 from Shenzhen (China) on May 27.

The opening ceremony for the Van Don - Shenzhen air route (Photo: baoquangninh.com.vn)
The opening ceremony for the Van Don - Shenzhen air route (Photo: baoquangninh.com.vn)

The airplane of Donghai Airlines departed from Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport at local time 23.05 on May 26 and landed at Van Don at 00.56am on May 27. On the other side, the departure time at Van Don is 3.00pm and arriving time in Shenzhen is 5.30pm on the same day. This is a fixed time frame for Donghai Airlines flights, which are operated on a return basis every Monday and Friday.

According to the Director of Van Don International Airport Pham Ngoc Sau, the airport is committed to creating the best conditions for Donghai Airlines’ operational activities in Van Don, while also carrying out other promotion activities to Shenzhen in particular and the Chinese market in general.

In June, Van Don will open new international routes, such as Van Don - Taiwan (China) on Bamboo Airways and Van Don - Incheon (the Republic of Korea) on Vietnam Airlines. For the Chinese market, there will be more routes to Hainan, Nanning and Guangzhou. It is forecasted that Van Don airport will continue to receive flights from Japan and Thailand by the end of 2019. The domestic market continues to expand with Van Don - Da Nang and Van Don - Phu Quoc routes.

After nearly five months of operation, Van Don International Airport welcomed more than 90 thousand passengers with 664 flights used by the three of the largest airlines in Vietnam today, Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air and Bamboo Airways.

Construction of the airport began in March 2016 on an area of 325 hectares in Van Don district’s Doan Ket commune, with a total investment capital of VND7.7 trillion (US$338.8 million), provided by Sun Group in the form of build-operate-transfer (BOT).

The airport is expected to open up new trade opportunities to help Van Don’s economy and tourism to fly high, thereby contributing to developing Quang Ninh into an international tourism centre and one of the country’s key tourism destinations.