Vietnam Builds International Airport at ex-U.S. Base

Vietnam Builds International Airport at ex-U.S. Base
Reuters, UK

Mon 22 December, 2003 09:37 
 
HANOI (Reuters) - Communist Vietnam plans to turn a former American military 
base in central Vietnam into an international airport in hopes of boosting 
tourism to its white-sand beaches, officials say.

They said work was under way to add passenger reception facilities to the 
airstrip at what was once the U.S. naval and air base at Cam Ranh Bay in the 
province of Khanh Hoa.

"The new airport will be a hub to bring foreign tourists to all central regions 
as early as April 2004," a spokesman for the Khanh Hoa People's Committee told 
Reuters on Monday.

U.S.-built facilities include two 4,000-metre runways that could receive large 
aircraft including Boeing 747-400s, the official said.

Cam Ranh naval base has one of Asia's finest deep-water anchorages offering 
strategic access to the South China Sea.

The base, used by American B-52 bombers during the Vietnam War, was leased in 
1979 to the Soviet Union which turned it into its largest overseas naval base 
and its largest military station of any kind outside the Warsaw Pact.

In May 2002, Russia lowered its flag at Cam Ranh after sharp cutbacks in its 
military budget.

Both the United States and China have eyed the Cam Ranh facilities, and 
Washington suggested an open port arrangement that would allow warships of all 
nations to make calls.


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