THE planned Hantharwaddy International Airport is the only priority in the area of aviation under the National League for Democracy-led government, said U Win Khant, permanent secretary of Ministry of Transport and Communications.

He made his comments in relation to the government’s Transport Master Plan during the sideline interview with The Myanmar Times at Myanmar Global Investment Forum. The event was organised by Euromoney on September 12 and 13 in Nay Pyi Taw.

The concessional agreement negotiations with the bidding winners is expected to be concluded towards the end of this year and the project is to be completed within five years following the agreement, U Win Khant added.

“This is the major priority for the Transport Master Plan. We will focus on this airport project under this government term.

“Due to the capacity of the Yangon International Airport, we will need the new one within five years, according to calculations made by the minister and Department of Civil Aviation [DCA],” he said.

The three existing Kawthaung airport in Tanintharyi Region, Mawlamyine airport in Mon State and Heho airport in Shan State are going to be upgraded through a public-private partnership (PPP) system, but the lack of proper PPP policy and guidelines is a major problem, he added.

Public-private partnerships between a government agency and private-sector company can be used to finance, construct and operate projects, such as night markets and public road networks.

The Yangon International Airport’s optimal capacity is 2.7 million passengers but it already served 3 million passengers in 2013, he went on.

Overcapacity for Yangon airport

The potential for the existing Yangon airport to expand is limited and it can no longer accommodate the increasing number of aircrafts. Hence, the government needs to construct a new airport to cater for the growing demand.

The DCA, in the last week of October 2014, declared Singapore-based Yongnam-CAPE-JGC consortium as the winning tender for the construction of the Hantharwaddy Airport, which can accommodate up to 12 million passengers a year.

It will be immensely difficult for the new airport to work if there is no road or rail to access Yangon city.

– U Win Khant, Ministry of Transport and Communications

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