US firm studies Long Thanh international airport project   Map of the Long Thanh International Airport (Photo: AmCham)    Dong Nai – The People’s Committee of the southern province of Dong Nai on December 12 met leaders of Bechtel Corporation, the largest construction and civil engineering company in the US, who are on a fact-finding trip to the province to learn about the Long Thanh International Airport project. The field trip aims to gain better understanding of the Long Thanh International Airport project, including issues of investment, construction, airport operation and development of an economic zone surrounding the airport, said a representative of Bechtel at a working session. Local authorities also expressed wish that Bechtel will invest in the project, especially providing consultations on the development of the zone. Covering an area of 5,000 ha, the Long Thanh airport is designed to be the biggest one in Vietnam, with its construction scheduled to begin in 2019. The airport is expected to handle 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo by 2025 in the first phase, which includes the construction of a runway, a terminal and auxiliary facilities.      The second and third phases will build more runways and terminals to bring the total capacity to 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo a year.       It will be constructed as a category 4F airport in line with the standard codes of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).      The airport aims to ease the overload at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, which serves up to 36 million passengers annually despite its designed capacity of only 25 million.       Total investment capital for the project is estimated at 336.63 trillion VND (16.03 billion USD). Of which, 114.45 trillion VND (5.45 billion USD) will be spent on the first phase. Project resources will be sourced from the State budget, the aviation sector’s equitisation capital, official development assistance (ODA), public-private partnership capital and other sources in line with the law. Dong Nai province has also been planning a 21,000ha economic zone surrounding the airport.-VNA