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I n 2003, the Northern Air-port Authority (NAA), the managing body for all air-

ports in the northern part of Vietnam, was assigned by the government to give a facelift to Vinh and Nasan airports.

Vinh

The city of Vinh is an important tourist and economic center of Nghe Anh province, boasting the picturesque Cualo beach-

es. Vinh airport was upgraded with a new 2,400 m long and 45 m wide runway, built to accom-modate larger airplanes, includ-ing the Airbus A320. There is al-so a 1,950 sq m terminal, capa-ble of receiving 140 arrivals per hour. Even the parking area was increased to 24,787 sq m.

Nasan

Nasan airport is the key to un-locking the economic blood ves-sels in the north-west area of Vietnam. It was originally a stra-tegic military airport built by the French colonists, and served as the only supply channel to the famous Dien Bien Phu base. It is now to be upgraded with a new runway and a modern terminal to become a civilian airport.

Free from 3rd party suppliers

The two airports were to be re-equipped with new, state-of-the-art and fully automated weath-er observation systems. Abiding to the local procurement proce-dures, a public tender was called in October 2003 for two airport weather observation systems. The tender specifications for the two airports were identical – re-quiring that all information on pressure, temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed and di-rection, horizontal visibility and cloud base should be collect-ed in a local data logger, prop-erly repacked and fed via an un-derground wire line to a central database server and from

Vu Khac ThongDirectorTrieuha Co., Ltd.Hanoi, Vietnam

Vinh and Nasan Airports Receive a Facelift in Vietnam

In recent years, the Vietnamese economy has experienced remarkable growth in all fields. Intensive trading and tourism necessitate the renovation and upgrading of major airports throughout the country.

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thereon distributed to observa-tion terminals and displays.

The Vaisala MIDAS IV Au-tomated Weather Observing Sys-tem, offered by the local distrib-utor Trieuha Co. Ltd., was a per-fect match and the choice of all members of the tender commit-tee. The winning argument was that Vaisala is the only manufac-turer offering a complete system – including sensors, data logger, hardware, and system software –that can provide long-term spare parts and support without being dependent on any third party manufacturers. The "all-made-in-Vaisala" concept won top marks during the evaluation.

Good track record

Another important point was that Trieuha Co.’s expertise in Vaisala equipment has been proven with a number of instal-lations in Vietnam. In this ten-der, Trieuha Co. offered addi-tional services such as a LAN-extender solution to extend the reach of the LAN hosting to the database server at the ATC tower, which is more than 200 m away. Furthermore, Trieuha contribut-ed to a rather challenging new AFTN terminal set-up, adding to the existing AFTN network at Vinh and Nasan airports. All the services, which could be very

expensive without similar expe-rience, were offered at a very at-tractive turnkey price.

Fast installation

In August 2004, the installation work including all civil work was completed in just two weeks by Trieuha Co. Ltd. The MIDAS IV system in Vinh airport was commissioned and put into op-eration alongside the existing weather facility. The ATC and other staff can now enjoy a visu-ally pleasing and fully automat-ed all-at-a-glance display right on their desk. The other MIDAS IV system in Nasan is also run-ning but, because of the on-go-ing runway construction work, does not serve daily flights. All the data will be collected and re-ported to NAA for statistical cal-culation.

From 2006, the MIDAS IV "twins" at Vinh and Nasan air-ports will be in full service. With these new systems, all 5 airports in the northern part of Vietnam are now being served by Vaisala AWOS systems. They will sure-ly provide an excellent reference for the upcoming airport up-grades in middle and southern parts of Vietnam. ●

Further information: thong.vu-khac@trieuha.com.

Vaisala MIDAS IV at Vinh Airport.

Nasan met garden.

Trieuha Co. Ltd.’s Director Mr. Vu Khac Thong.