To ensure the completion of the ambitious Long Thanh International Airport, Vietnam deployed hundreds of soldiers to work on it as a shortfall of workers was realized, according to a VnExpress news article. The new international airport has been scheduled for a December 2026 opening and it has been anticipated to handle most flights in 2027.
To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the news report of VnExpress. Some parts in boldface…
Vietnam has deployed hundreds of soldiers to help build its largest airport, the VND336.63 trillion (US$12.8 billion) Long Thanh, as contractors scramble to cover a shortfall of nearly 2,000 workers before a year-end deadline to open the country’s new aviation hub.
The deployment signals the urgency around a flagship project that has already slipped past its original 2025 opening date.
Hundreds of officers and enlisted soldiers have been brought onto the site in Dong Nai City in the country’s south to reinforce a civilian workforce that has struggled to keep pace with one of Southeast Asia’s biggest construction projects.
The move was confirmed during a June 13 inspection by Construction Minister Tran Hong Minh, who was told by an Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) representative that more than 76% of the total project value had been completed.
The workforce has been topped up in recent weeks but still falls nearly 2,000 short of the roughly 9,000 workers the site needs, with several units calling in military personnel to bridge the gap.
The labor crunch reflects a wider squeeze in southern Vietnam, where a cluster of megaprojects is competing for the same pool of skilled construction workers.
The nearby Bien Hoa-Vung Tau expressway and the expansion of the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway are pulling engineers and machine operators away from the airport, and the harsh conditions across the vast, largely open site have made workers hard to retain.
To claw back time before the rainy season, contractors have added engineers, workers and equipment and moved to round-the-clock construction in three shifts and four rotating crews, part of a 180-day campaign to accelerate to the finish.
The airport is now expected to be substantially complete and to begin trial operations in September, with commercial flights targeted for late 2026.
ACV said finishing work on the passenger terminal still lacks skilled technical labor, while other packages are short of machinery operators.
The investor has ordered contractors to staff up for day-and-night work, prioritizing foundation and stone-base work to limit disruption when the rains peak.
At the terminal, which Minh called the project’s “heart,” he urged crews to complete each task definitively, down to the smallest item, and to push outdoor work first to stay ahead of the weather.
The schedule could not slip, he said, and crews had to race against time.
Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Do you think having hundreds of Vietnamese soldiers will be effective on completing the new international airport ahead of the December 2026 launch?
You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.
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