Ca Mau Airport
Encyclopedia
Ca Mau Province
Cà Mau is a province of Vietnam, named after its capital city. It is located in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam, and is the southernmost of Vietnam's 58 provinces...
, the most southern part of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
.
The airport is currently served by Vietnam Aviation Service Company (VASCO) with flight to Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
(Tan Son Nhat International Airport
Tan Son Nhat International Airport
Tan Son Nhat International Airport is Vietnam's largest international airport in terms of area . It has a handling capacity of 15-17 million passengers per year, compared with the capacity of Hanoi - Noi Bai airport of 8 million passengers and Da Nang's 2 million passengers...
, SGN).
The coordinates are: 105°10’46” E and 09°10’32” N.
History
Initially built by the French colonistsFrench Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
as Moranc Airfield at Quản Long town, An Xuyên province (now Ca Mau City) with the runway of 400 m long and 16 m wide.
June 1962, Bureau of Aviation of the Republic of Vietnam rebuilt this airfield in an area of 91.61 hecta, the runway of 1050m x 30m, the apron 60m x 120 m and renamed it Quan Long Airport (Phi trường Quản Long).
This airport was used mainly for military purpose, serving helicopters, L19, OV10, Dakota, C130 and some other kind of fightfighters. In dry season of 1972, the runway and the apron were repaved with asphalt.
In April 1975, following the fall of Saigon
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front on April 30, 1975...
, the airport was controlled by communist forces. From 1976 to 1978, this airport was used for military activities only.
On 30 April 1995, this airport revived the civil flight with an AN 2 VF808. Civil services continued but with low profit. From 1997, the civil scheduled flight services suspended due to low traffic, only chartered flight remained.
On 30 April 1996, the old terminal was renovated. In July of the same year, the airport was equipped precision instrument landing system
Instrument Landing System
An instrument landing system is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument...
NDB 500II and standby generator.
On 13 December 2003, the construction of the new terminal started. The terminal has an area of 1548m2, of which the floor area is 1548m2, the suspension floor is 878m2.
In 2004, this airport handled 398 aircraft movements with 8975 passengers, 41,583 kg cargo. In 2005, this airport served 791 aircraft movements with 24,324 passengers and 125,341 kg cargo.
The government of Vietnam approved a renovation planning for this airport, according to which the runway will be extended to 1900 m x 30 m, capable to handle 2 medium-sized aircraft at the same time, 150 passengers per hour or 200,000 passengers per annum by 2015. From 2015, another runway of 2400 m x 45 m will be built, capable to handle 4 medium-sized aircraft (like Airbus 320) at the same time with 300,000 passengers per annum.
Airlines and destinations
As of April 2011, Vietnam Air Service CompanyVietnam Air Service Company
Vietnam Air Service Company , also known as VASCO, is an airline in Vietnam, headquartered in Tân Bình, Ho Chi Minh City. Operating scheduled flights from its base at Tan Son Nhat International Airport to the south of the country, VASCO is a fully owned subsidiary of Vietnam Airlines, it also...
operates two flights daily for Ho Chi Minh City-Ca Mau route with ATR-72 aircraft.