The information was announced by Senior Lieutenant-General Tran Don, Deputy Minister of National Defense at a meeting with the south-central province's authorities Friday. In 2009, the government approved a plan to build Phan Thiet airport in beach town Phan Thiet of Binh Thuan, which lies more than four hours east of Ho Chi Minh City and currently has none. The plan said the airport would span 543 hectares (1,340 acres) to serve both civilian and military purposes and invested under the build-operate-transfer format by Hanoi-based Rang Dong JSC. It also said work would start in 2015 for the project to be finished in 2018. However, nothing had been carried out as scheduled. In 2017, Binh Thuan proposed to upgrade the civil rating of the planned airport from 4C to 4E as regulated by International Civil Aviation Organization. In specific, the province wanted to extend the airport's runway from 2,400 meters to 3,050 meters in order to raise its capabilities toward the 4E rating. … [Read more...] about Phan Thiet airport to start construction in March