Long Thanh airport plans runway No. 1 calibration flight on September 25

Nguyen Tien Viet, deputy general director of ACV, disclosed the plan on Sunday during an on-site inspection led by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, who reviewed phase 1 construction progress and met with contractors.

The September 25 calibration flight comes after a series of test flights and evaluations of flight procedures carried out by the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation in coordination with relevant agencies in July and August.

According to ACV, calibration flights are essential for verifying the signal quality of navigation equipment and for assessing flight procedures that rely on ground-based signals, ensuring accuracy, stability, and safety for air routes.

The corporation added that Long Thanh has been designed with 68 standardized flight procedures, covering departures, arrivals, and approach operations.

Viet emphasized that every effort is being made to ensure the calibration flight later this month and the technical flight in December proceed as scheduled, with the goal of substantially completing phase 1 by the end of 2025 and bringing the airport into commercial operation in the first half of 2026.

Specifically, ACV said that runway No. 1 and its taxiway system have already been completed, while the construction of runway No. 2, which began on May 30, is being accelerated.

For the passenger terminal, considered the heart of the airport, the roof has been finished, glass installation is expected to be completed in September, and façade work is underway.

Deputy Prime Minister Ha called on ACV and its contractors to step up efforts, both to prepare for the upcoming calibration flight and to achieve the substantial completion of all major work items before December 19, 2025, in order to serve the technical flight and keep phase 1 on track.

The Long Thanh International Airport project carries a total estimated investment of more than VND336.63 trillion (about US$12.75 billion), divided into three phases.

Phase 1, which began in 2020 with an investment of around VND109 trillion ($4.13 billion), will allow the airport to handle 25 million passengers and 1.2 million metric tons of cargo annually.

Once all three phases are completed, Long Thanh is expected to accommodate 100 million passengers and five million metric tons of cargo per year.