Lien Khuong Airport

Lien Khuong Airport (IATA: DLI, ICAO: VVDL) (Vietnamese: Cảng hàng không Liên Khương) is an airport located in Đức Trọng District, about 30 km south of Da Lat, Lâm Đồng Province. It is the largest among 4 airports in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam. The major reconstruction in order to handle bigger aircraft was completed in December 2009. This airport handled 1,690,000 passengers in 2019, an increase of 18.3% against that of 2014.[2]

Lien Khuong Airport

Cảng hàng không Liên Khương
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerAirports Corporation of Vietnam
ServesDa Lat
Elevation AMSL3,156 ft / 962 m
Coordinates11°45′02″N 108°22′25″E
Map
DLI is located in Vietnam
DLI
DLI
Location of airport in Vietnam
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
09/27 10,663 3,250 Asphalt
Statistics (2019)
Passengers2,340,000 [1]

History

Lien Khuong Airport was built by the French colonists in 1933 with a 700-meter-long soil runway. From 1956 - 1960 American army reconstructed and upgraded Lien Khuong Airport with rather completed facilities is not the infrastructure is quite complete, the terminal was designed in French architecture, with three stories. The terminal had a capacity of 50,000 passengers per year or about 120 passengers/peak hour.[3]

In 1957 there was a commercial flight 5 days a week from Saigon to Dalat operated by Air Vietnam utilising a Douglas DC-3. The flight continued from Dalat to Banmethuot and then other cities before reversing its route. By 1962 the frequency had increased to 2 flights per day. By 1969 the DC-3 planes had been replaced by DC-4s and an additional flight per day was added to the schedule. By 1972 the frequency was reduced to 1 flight per day utilising DC-3 and DC-4s.

During 1964–1972, the runway, apron, packing, access roads went through improvement and reinforcement, the runway was refaced with asphalt from 8–10 cm in depth. As a result of this improvement, the runway reached 1,480 m long and 37 m wide, the apron was 23,100 square meters, apron of 2,106 square meters, access road was 2,100 meters long. Following the unification of Vietnam on 30 April 1975 until 1980, this airport was controlled and operated by the Vietnam People's Army, the airport mainly served high ranking governmental leaders on business and lifting residents from northern Vietnam to Lâm Đồng in the so-called "New Economic Movement".[3]

From 1981 to 1985 Lien Khuong Airport served civil service flights with Ho Chi Minh City - Lien Khuong route (one flight weekly) on Yak-40 aircraft but all civil flights was suspended due to low passenger traffic.

Since 1992 Lien Khuong Airport resumed its civil services with Ho Chi Minh - Lien Khuong, and Huế – Lien Khuong on Yak-40 and was later replaced by ATR 72. The Huế – Lieng Khuong was later suspended.

The old terminal
The new terminal

Since October 2004, this airport has served more air link with Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport with Fokker 70 aircraft. As of December 2009, there are two daily flights to Ho Chi Minh City, one flight daily to Hanoi.[3]

Military activity

Aeroflot Russia ran connection flights within Vietnam with Ilyushin Il-86 aircraft during 1981–89. It is suspected that the Soviet VVS Air Force carried out operations from Lien Khuong after the fall of Saigon in April 1975. Russia disbanded 2 of 3 defensive VVS interceptor squadrons consisting of Su-27, MiG-25, and 13 Yak-50 within Da lat in the summer of 1999. The fate of the retired aircraft is unknown. Possible transfer to People's Army of Vietnam PAVN and/or People's Air Defense Force of Vietnam PADFV to Hanoi.

Services

The new 12,400-square-meter passenger terminal was inaugurated on December 26, 2009. The new two-floor terminal will enable the Lien Khuong airport to serve international flights in the region in 2010. The terminal is capable of receiving 1.5-2 million passengers per year. [4]

Airlines and destinations
AirlinesDestinations
AirAsia Kuala Lumpur–International
Asiana Airlines Seoul–Incheon (begins 23 December 2023)[5]
Bamboo Airways Can Tho,[6] Da Nang,[7] Hanoi,[8] Vinh
Pacific Airlines Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Muan
Thai VietJet Air Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi[9]
VietJet Air Busan,[10] Can Tho,[11] Da Nang, Hai Phong,[12] Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City,[13] Seoul–Incheon,[14] Vinh
Vietnam Airlines Can Tho,[15] Da Nang, Hai Phong,[16] Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hue,[15] Phu Quoc,[17] Thanh Hoa,[15] Vinh[18]

Proposed international destinations

The airport has been upgraded into international standard to serve international flights to Singapore, South Korea, Laos and Cambodia.[19] The airport is served by international flights to Bangkok, Thailand, by Thai Vietjet Air and by AirAsia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Statistics
Flights Out of Lien Khuong Airport by Frequency
RankDestinationsFrequency (Weekly)
1 Hanoi 63
2 Ho Chi Minh City 56
3 Da Nang 7
4 Vinh 7
5 Hue 3
6 Hai Phong 6
7 Bangkok 7
8 Seoul-Incheon 6
9 Can Tho 4
10 Kuala Lumpur 4
11 Lanzhou 2
Year Number of passengers
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014 675,995
2015 862,164
2016 1,300,000
2017 1,600,000
2018 1,750,000
2019 2,340,000

Ground transport

A shuttle van to Da Lat is available for 40,000 dong; tickets are available near baggage collection, however seats quickly fill up. A taxi would be around 250,000 dong (15 US dollars).

Accidents and incidents
  • On 29 December 1973, Douglas C-53D EM-3 of Air America overran the runway on landing. The aircraft was substantially damaged and was not salvaged due to the presence of land mines in the area. It was operating a non-scheduled passenger flight. All nine people on board survived.[20]

See also

References
  1. "Kết quả sản xuất kinh doanh của ACV: Năm 2015 sản lượng hành khách thông qua cảng đạt trên 63 triệu lượt, tăng 24,2% so với năm 2014". ACV. 2016-01-19. Archived from the original on 2016-01-28.
  2. "Kết quả sản xuất kinh doanh của ACV: Năm 2015 sản lượng hành khách thông qua cảng đạt trên 63 triệu lượt, tăng 24,2% so với năm 2014" (in Vietnamese). ACV. 2016-01-19. Archived from the original on 2016-01-28.
  3. "GIỚI THIỆU CHUNG VỀ CẢNG HÀNG KHÔNG LIÊN KHƯƠNG". Southern Airports Corporation. 2006-06-09. Archived from the original on 2017-06-30. Retrieved 2009-12-30.
  4. "New terminal opens in Central Highlands airport". VietnamNet. 2009-12-29. Archived from the original on 2009-12-31.
  5. "Asiana Airlines NW23 Southeast Asia Network Additions". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  6. "Từ ngày 05 tháng 8 năm 2020, Bamboo Airways mở thêm 4 đường bay kết nối Cần Thơ". CAAV (in Vietnamese). 4 August 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  7. "Hãng hàng không Việt mở mới nhiều đường bay đến Đà Nẵng".
  8. "> Routesonline. 6 March 2019.
  9. "Thai VietJet Air to Resume Da Lat Service in Dec 2022". Aeroroutes. 17 November 2022.
  10. "VietJet Air Expands Da Lat – South Korea Service in NS23". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  11. "VietJet Air expands Can Tho network from late-April 2019".
  12. "Vietjet Air Adds New Domestic Routes from May 2016". airlineroute. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  13. "VietJetAir mở đường bay TPHCM-Đà Lạt". Thời báo Kinh tế Sài Gòn Online. 2014-02-27. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2014-03-04.
  14. Liu, Jim (6 December 2019). "VietJet Air further expands Seoul service in Jan 2020". routesonline. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  15. "Vietnam Airlines tiếp tục mở 5 đường bay nội địa mới". Vietnam Airlines (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  16. "Vietnam Airlines sắp mở 6 đường bay mới". Vietnambiz (in Vietnamese). June 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  17. "Vietnam Airlines tiếp tục mở rộng mạng bay nội địa". Vietnam Airlines (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  18. "Vietnam Airlines khai trương hai đường bay mới nhân dịp ngày sinh Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh". Vietnam Airlines (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  19. "Lam Dong: survey to open int'l air routes conducted". VietnamNet. 2009-12-29. Archived from the original on 2009-06-19.
  20. "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
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