<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 70, 135);"><strong>Before 1975</strong></span><strong><br />

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The system of airports in Central Vietnam was mostly built before 1954 to serve the French expeditionary military. In the 1960s, Americans rebuilt and upgraded these airports to air force bases in an effort to escalate the war in Vietnam. At that time, the infrastructures mainly served the war. Flight operations were mostly for military purposes and rarely for civil purposes.<br />

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<span style="color: rgb(0, 70, 135);"><strong>Between 1975 and 1980</strong></span><br />

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<em><strong>Rebuilding to meet the two strategic objectives<br />

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After the war ended in 1975, airports in the Central Vietnam were rebuilt not only to serve transportation demand in the region, but also to be ready in case of war and to defend the nation.<br />

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On February 11th, 1976 The Vietnamese Government established The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam. The system of airports was divided into regions. Airports in the Central Vietnam included Da Nang airport, Phu Bai airport, Dong Hoi airport, Quy Nhon airport, Nha Trang airport and Pleiku airport. To ensure proper operation, Da Nang airport was initially structured similar to Noi Bai airport.&nbsp; For instance, Air Forces were in charge of the communications and fuel supplies. The Civil Aviation and Air Forces worked under contracts. Meanwhile, Phu Bai airport and Dong Hoi airport had the same organization structure with a few staff on duty. Quy Nhon, Nha Trang and Pleiku airports had not had an official organizational structure and were rarely in operation. During this period, the airports combined the civil services with military operation, including air services management. Most of the technological equipment systems and infrastructures were badly damaged during the war. Thus, works on improving and upgrading encountered a lot of difficulties. Still, the airports had to ensure their operations to serve the country after reunification. As requested by the Government, the air traffic axis of Gia Lam- Da Nang - Tan Son Nhat had to stay maintain and be in good condition to serve political mission at all time.<br />

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<span style="color: rgb(0, 70, 135);"><strong>Between 1981 and 1990</strong></span><br />

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<em><strong>Mechanism transference - Lingering steps</strong></em>

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This was a difficult and challenging period for Vietnam in general and for the Civil Aviation industry in particular. The recession and seriously unbalanced economy together with the US embargo policy caused great hindrances and had direct impacts on the aviation industry. Therefore, the aviation industry immediately changed its old operation model to a business oriented one with three economic objectives including air transport, air services and manufacturing/processing. This gradually helped to eliminate the subsidized administrative economy and turned into a cost accounting and socialistic business model.<br />

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In the field of air transportation, the infrastructures at the airports in the Central part were downgraded and outdated. Flight operation reached a frequency of 2-4 flights per day (Danang airport) and 1-2 flights per week (other airports). However, to reach the target of aviation development, airports with a high volume of passengers were invested in upgrading infrastructures and technical facilities such as the construction of a passenger terminal, the purchase of foreign navigational aid equipment and the improvement of runways in the airside to serve mid-sized aircrafts such as IL 62, DC 10 (Danang). In 1987, the runway lighting system of Danang International airport was restored and put into operation.<br />

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Business services and manufacturing/processing operations in this period were speeded up to improve employees&rsquo; living standards and to ease common difficulties of the MAC under the circumstances the whole country was facing a lot of considerable challenges.<br />

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<span style="color: rgb(0, 70, 135);"><strong>The period of 1991 - 1999</strong></span><br />

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<em><strong>Renovation period</strong></em>

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On August 29th, 1989 the Government made a decision to separate Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam from the Ministry of Defense, transferring it to the government enterprise which was belonged to the Council of Ministers (a.k.a. Government). On February 27th, 1990 the Executive General Director of Civil Aviation Administration signed a bill to establish Danang International Airport and Middle Airports Corporation consisting of 5 airports in the region: Danang International Airport, Phu Bai Airport, Phu Cat Airport (formerly Qui Nhon), Nha Trang Airport and Pleiku Airport.<br />

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In this period, the regional air travel market showed a sign of recovering and started to grow. Middle Airports Corporation continued to improve its service quality and gradually upgrade its technical infrastructures in the condition of tight budget. In 1993, a new terminal was put into operation at Pleiku airport with the area of 600m2 capable of serving 100 passengers during the peak hour. In 1995, Phu Bai Airport began to extend its runways and upgrade electric systems and other infrastructures to serve the operation of short-range aircrafts such as ATR72. The authority paid close attention to airport operations and the top priority was to comprehensively improve and upgrade international airports such as Noi Bai, Danang and Tan Son Nhat. Passenger-serving-systems at Danang airport were re-equipped and modernized. The terminal was expanded to be able to handle 20 flights per day, equivalent to a frequency of 800,000 passengers per year. The airside system was upgraded in compliance with international service standards, so as to handle wide body aircrafts such as Boeing 747, MD 11, An 124, C17 and Airbus A300-600.<br />

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Since 1992, the productivity has increased at the local airports such as Phu Bai Airport, Nha Trang Airport and Phu Cat Airport. Flights from Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City were connected to other regional airports to serve the needs of domestic travelers, especially those of foreigners visiting, seeking investment opportunities and doing business in the Central region.<br />

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Together with CAAV, Middle Airports Corporation has transported a high volume of passengers and cargos. This actively contributed to the economic and culture development as well as the cooperation in the country&rsquo;s renovation mission.<br />

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<span style="color: rgb(0, 70, 135);"><em><strong>The New Millennium &ndash; The road towards integration</strong></em></span>

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The enormous growth of the local economy as well as the aviation industry in the Central part reached a milestone when Thai Airways International officially launched its regular operations on international flight route Bangkok - Da Nang- Bangkok on October 31st, 1999 with a frequency of 3 flights per week and when Pacific Airlines offered a regular flight route Da Nang &ndash; Hong Kong &ndash; Da Nang in November, 2000. These made Da Nang International Airport the third international gateway of Viet Nam after Tan Son Nhat International Airport and Noi Bai International Airport that directly connected to surrounding countries. Located in the center of the country and on the East - West flight corridor in the region (A1, A901 is one of the world&rsquo;s most frequent ten flight routes), Da Nang has great advantage to become a pivotal point in air transportation of Viet Nam. The Government planed to bring more international flights to Da Nang and to establish an air traffic hub right here. It is expected that new flights from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and the United States will be in operation in the next 5 years. To better serve the high demand of passengers at present and in the future, a new International terminal project at Da Nang airport has been submitted to the Office of the Prime Minister for approval. This project will include a modern terminal with capacity of 4 million passengers a year and is expected to put into operation in 2005.<br />

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Along with Da Nang International airport, other airports in the Central part have reached the highest growth rate ever. Phu Bai Airport has just received the approval from the Government for international exchange. This will make Phu Bai the second international airport in the Central area in the near future.