Vietnam

Vietnam: Oil supply disruption impacts Phu Quoc Airport expansion

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The oil supply crunch reduced deliveries of the vast volumes of diesel required for expansion of Phu Quoc Airport, including a second runway and passenger teminal, plus a luxurious VVIP terminal, scheduled for completion in time for the APEC 2027 forum.

Rendering of Phu Quoc Airport VVIP terminal
Artist’s rendering of Phu Quoc Airport VVIP terminal as seen from above, resembling a sea eagle. Image: VnExpress

Within days of the US and Israel launching strikes on Iran restrictions on oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for diesel supplies to the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc, had drastically reduced delivery of the volumes required for expansion of Phu Quoc Airport. The ambitious expansion plan aims to increase passenger handling capacity fivefold, from the current 4 million per year to 20 million by 2027 in the first phase, rising further to 50 million per year by 2050. The oil supply crunch had major impacts on construction works. Operation of between 160-180 items of heavy equipment for runway 2 works required 10,000 liters of diesel per day. Earthworks on 2,700 hectares of the runway 2 area, with 130 pieces of equipment, had been consuming about 27,000 liters per day. More than 60 per cent of the equipment had been shut down and 70 machine and vehicle operators temporarily laid off. Tankers carrying 200,000 liters of diesel had been arriving from the mainland every 7-10 days, but since 2nd March the supplier was only fulfilling existing orders and was no longer taking new orders. Yet publicity for the airport expansion continued. On 18th March 2026 Phu Quoc Airport unveiled more details of the VIP terminal design, with graphics depicting an exclusive lounge and luxurious, spacious arrival and departure halls that are markedly different from cramped and crowded facilities for regular travellers, with floor-to ceiling windows giving a ‘sweeping view of the sea’, ‘glossy black obsidian surfaces’, gold accents and a glass and gold sculpture of an eagle ray in flight.

Luxury aviation facilities for APEC 2027

Less than four months previously, on 28th November 2025, rapid progress of Phu Quoc Airport expansion was reported to be an aviation industry record with a second runway, closely followed by the ‘VVIP terminal’, then a second terminal, T2, all on schedule. The expanded airport is envisaged as a ‘gateway’ to a ‘Phu Quoc megacity of the future’ and on 31st December 2025 it was announced that airport construction was moving at an unprecedented pace; the steel framework for the 6,000 square meter VVIP terminal was in place. Initially, the VVIP terminal will host heads of state and high ranking delegations to the 2027 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Leaders Week meeting, a key event in the APEC 2027 forum themed ‘Connecting: Building Inclusive and Resilient Economies’. Exclusive facilities are being fast-tracked for an event purporting to promote inclusivity. Both the VIP terminal and Terminal 2 are being built ‘with the aim of delivering luxury standards and a premium passenger experience’. Luxurious passenger facilities will be accompanied by a new luxury airline, Sun PhuQuoc Airways, which ordered up to 40 Boeing 747 Dreamliner planes for international flights to its hub at Phu Quoc Airport. Boeing’s announcement emphasised the aircraft’s ‘superior comfort to passengers’ and described Sun PhuQuoc Airways as ‘well positioned to capture the next wave of premium tourism’. Two mega hotel projects reshaping the skyline to host global leaders and high ranking officials for APEC 2027 are similarly exclusive, designed for ‘diplomatic events, international conferences and high-end tourism’.

Forest land conversion for tourism projects

Conversion of 0.46 hectares of protected forest land for use in Phu Quoc Airport expansion was approved in February 2026. This small forest loss for tourism-related infrastructure is a continuation of a pattern affecting large swaths of the island. Elsewhere on Phu Quoc 286 development projects are planned and, as reported by Mongabay, since July 2024, authorities have permitted conversion of over 180 hectares of forest, most of it categorised as ‘special use’ due to ecological value or scientific importance. A key development, Rạch Tràm Ecotourism and Residential Project on the island’s north coast, required forced relocation of 508 households and clearance of 57.7 hectares of special use forest in Phu Quoc National Park. Development of Phu Quoc as an island tourism city was approved by the Prime Minister in 2022 and the 286 projects, at various stages of planning and development, span over 9,600 hectares, nearly 17 per cent of the island. Legal changes in 2024, expanding the type of developments for which forest land can be converted to include industrial parks and clusters in addition to ecotourism, resorts and recreation projects, facilitated a spike in forest conversion approvals. Since the amendments to land laws conversion of nearly 182 hectares of Phu Quoc forest, 77 per cent of this being special use forest, has been approved and the land designated for tourism projects.

Vietnam: Clearing rice fields and relocating thousands of households for Gia Binh Airport

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Land clearance and consutruction of Gia Binh Airport, on the largest airport site in North Vietnam. is underway. Since approval of the project the projected passenger capacity has risen to 50 million per year by 2050. A VIP terminal is scheduled for completion in time for APEC 27.

Aerial image of Gia Binh Airport site, 26/04/3024Aerial image of Gia Binh Airport site, 17/07/2025
Aerial imagery of Gia Binh Airport site. The image on the left shows the site on 26/04/2024 before construction works began. The image on the right, dated 17/07/2025, shows land cleared for runways and other airport infrastructure.

A major new airport in Gia Binh, about 40 kilometres east of Hanoi in a rural area of Vietnam’s Bac Ninh province, was approved by the Ministry of Transport in February 2025, with capacity for 1 million passengers annually by 2030, rising to 3 million by 2050. By April the planned capacity had been adjusted upwards to 5 million passengers annually by 2030 rising to 15 million by 2050. In July the size of the airport project was scaled upwards again, to handle 30 million passengers per year by 2030 then reaching 50 million by 2050. Since publication of the original plan the projected cargo volume had more than doubled, from 250,000 tons annually by 2030 growing to 1 million tons by 2050 to 1.6 million tons by 2030 growing to 2.5 million tons by 2050. With its site enlarged nearly fivefold, from an initial 408.5 hectares to 1,960 hectares, Gia Binh Airport is now set to be northern Vietnam’s largest airport, bigger than Noi Bai Airport and Tan Son Nhat Airport, exceeded only by the 5,000 hectare site of Long Thanh Airport in the southern Dong Nai province.

In August the government approved special mechanisms fast tracking investment and construction processes for the airport, related works, land clearance and resettlement, exempting projects from construction permit requirements and approving conversion of rice crop land. About 920 hectares of rice fields yielding two crops per year will be converted for the airport. Land allocated for the Gia Binh Airport site comprises about 1,184.78 hectares of agricultural land, 415 hectares of non-agricultural land, 159.4 hectares of residential land and 124.8 hectares of land utilized for defence and security purposes. Land acquisition will affect approximately 7,100 households and individuals and 118 organizations. About 5,800 households and individuals will have to relocate and resettle. The number of graves that will be moved is estimated at 18,800 but this does not include unidentified graves. Development of Gia Binh Airport is triggering one of the largest land clearances in recent history.

Schools and hospitals along with infrastructure such as irrigation systems, canals, pumping stations and power transmission lines will also have to be removed to make way for the airport and rebuilt elsewhere. About 25 historical and cultural sites must also be relocated as part of land clearance for the airport. By mid-November initial groundworks for construction of the airport and development of supporting infrastrucure were underway. Heavy machinery was operating continuously to level the airport site and barriers and signs restricted access to construction zones. The provincial government had paid more than VND1,990 trillion (USD81 million) in compensation to 4,045 households in the Gia Binh, Nhan Thang and Luong Tai communes, accelerating clearance of more than 436 hectares of land. Clearance of agricultural plots of land was scheduled to be finished by 30th November with resettlement areas due for completion by 15th December.

Gia Binh Airport will accommodate large, wide-bodied aircraft including the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 and plans specify four runways upon completion by 2050. The investment requirement is estimated at VND 196.37 trillion (USD7.5 billion). As well as becoming a major aviation hub the airport project will open up land surrounding it for development including hotels, airport-adjacent hospitality, and airport city projects. The Ministry of Construction had considered expanding Noi Bai Airport southwards, but this would have necessitated relocation of large communities and incur high land clearance costs. With larger land reserves and more space for development than Noi Bai Airport, the government expects Gia Binh Airport to accelerate growth of industry, logistics, e-commerce and tourism.

In addition to dual-use function as a civil and military facility with a strategic role in national defence Gia Binh Airport is designed to support major diplomatic events, in particular Vietnam’s hosting of the 2027 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation inter-governmental forum, APEC 2027. Elite APEC officials will be among the first passengers to arrive at Gia Binh Airport; a ‘soft opening‘ in time for APEC 2027 is planned, with one runway operational along with the air traffic control tower and a VIP terminal. Many key APEC 2027 events, most notably the annual Leaders’ Summit, will take place on Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island located near the south coast of Cambodia, which is rapidly developing as a luxury tourism destination. Fast-paced expansion of Phu Quoc Airport to support APEC 27 Leaders’ Week is underway. One of the high-priority projects is a VIP terminal to welcome heads of state and high-ranking delegations to the APEC 27 leaders’ meeting. Longer term plans for Phu Quoc Airport expansion aim to increase passenger capacity from the current 4 million to 50 million by 2050.

Dust pollution from levelling Long Thanh Airport construction site

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Long Thanh Airport, under construction in the Đồng Nai Province, is slated to be Vietnam’s biggest airport. With a 5,000 hectare site and costing USD16 billion the airport is designed to have capacity to handle 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo per annum. High levels of dust pollution from levelling Long Thanh Airport construction site, caused distress and posed health risks for neighbouring communities. Between April and October 2022 inspections by Đồng Nai Department of Natural Resources and Environment found dust pollution at the site up to 18 times higher than permitted levels. Levelling works entailed digging up and filling and flattening vast volumes of soil and trucks carrying soil on the site stirred up clouds of dust. In December 2022 more than 1,800 vehicles and machines were operating on the airport site. By the end of March 2023 residents of neighbourhoods near Long Thanh Airport construction site had been shrouded in dust for several months. Satellite imagery dated 13th March 2023 showed progress of the levelling works.

Long Thanh Airport site, 13/03/2023
Long Thanh Airport site 13/03/2023. Image credit: Esri, European Commission, European Space Agency, Amazon Web Services

One place worst affected by dust was the primary school at the heart of the Binh Son Commune. Doors were kept closed for the entire day but dust still seeped in. “It’s impossible to clean” said a school security guard, “the dust is everywhere and comes at all times.” A teacher at the school said pupils’ books were “terribly dirty”. Pupils’ hands were always red and they were not comfortable with wearing face masks. Ten people cleaned the school three times every day but dust got into every corner. Some households attempted to keep dust out with canvas tarpaulins or plastic sheeting. A local resident said before airport construction started air quality in the area had been good, but now it was “unbearable”. Another resident said it would be another two of three years until the airport is completed and they “could not bear the red dust”. The deputy chairman of the Vietnam Lung Association said exposure to dust on a daily basis can severely affect people’s health, causing damage to the lining of the respiratory tract or leading to pneumonia, lung infection or pulmonary fibrosis.

Green roofs were coated in red dust and residents spoke of dust on every surface. Farmers in Binh Son Commune grappled with pervasive red dust from the airport construction site. Dust had stuck to mangosteen and rambutan leaves just as the trees began to bear fruit. One farmer said his durian trees had not developed properly and more than half of the fruit had fallen. He and other farmers attempted to wash their trees, spraying them with water which was of limited effectiveness. Another farmer cleaned his trees from 2am to 8am each day, consuming a lot of water and electricity. Other crops were affected, including jackfruit, lychee, banana and sapodilla. Red plumes rose like fires from the construction site and dust was carried by the wind, turning the sky red and impacting on people living at some distance from the construction site, including in the Loc An-Ninh relocation area, a resettlement site for people displaced to make way for Long Thanh Airport. A blanket of dust hung in the air extending as far as 10 kiometres from the site.

A video filmed on the airport site in March 2023 shows a red dust ‘tornado’, a large, dense, rotating plume of dust. You can hear the rumbling sound of the tornado. Clouds of dust are generated when a bulldozer pours red soil into a truck. Footage from a moving vehicle shows areas of the site under a heavy haze of dust and trucks pumping water onto part of the site.

Efforts to address the dust problem, such as spraying water and deploying trucks to dampen the ground to reduce airborne dust, had been ineffective. Officials noted that the size of the site, the dry season and windy weather exacerbated the dust problems. Beginning in April 2023 dust mitigation measures were increased with construction of 10 reservoirs, each with capacity to store 3,200 cubic metres of water, to supply water for 60 trucks including two firefighting trucks. It was also announced that air conditioners would be installed at some schools near the construction site, to prevent dust from entering classrooms.

For more information see the case report on EJatlas, the world’s largest, most comprehensive online database of social conflict around environmental issues: Dust pollution from Long Thanh Airport construction, Vietnam. In April 2023, after publication of the case study, ACV was fined VND180 million (US$7,670) for dust pollution during construction of Long Thanh Airport, plus an additional fine of VND90 million (US$3,835) for failure to implement the environmental impact assessment report.