Decree No. 42/2016/NĐ-CP stipulates conditions, procedures, and formalities for opening and closing dedicated airports.

DECREE

Regulations on Conditions, Procedures, and Formalities for Opening and Closing Special Purpose Airports

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organization of the Signed by the Government on May 19,2015;

Pursuant to the Civil Aviation Law of Vietnam dated June 29, 2006, and the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Provisions of the Civil Aviation Law of Vietnam dated June 21, Pursuant to the National Defense Law dated June 14, 2005; ..., day ..., month ..., year ...Pursuant to Article 5 of Decree No. 123/2015/NĐ-CP dated November 15, 2015 issued by the Government on the implementation of the National Program for Household Registration and Statistics for the period 2017-2024;

The Land Law dated November 29,

On the basis of Pursuant to the Construction Law dated January 1, in 2013;

8, 2003;The Government hereby promulgates this Decree on conditions, procedures, and formalities for opening and closing special purpose airports.year 2014;

"Based on the proposal of the Minister of National Defense;"

This Decree stipulates conditions, procedures, and formalities for opening and closing special purpose airports.Organizations and individuals of Vietnam and foreign organizations and individuals related to the opening, closing, and management of special purpose airports in Vietnam.Article 1. A special purpose airport is a designated area on land, water surface, or artificial structure used for aircraft, seaplanes, helicopters operations to serve common air transportation purposes or passenger, baggage, cargo, mail transportation without public carriage.

PART I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of Regulation

Article 2. Special purpose aircraft include various types of helicopters, seaplanes, small fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles using paved or earth runways, water surfaces.

Article 2. Applicability

Article 3. An aircraft landing and takeoff area is a prepared area on land, water surface, or artificial structure to ensure that special purpose aircraft can take off and land.

Article 3. Explanation of Terms

In this Decree, the following terms are understood as follows:

Article 4. Runway is a defined area within the airport, water surface used for aircraft takeoff and landing.

Article 5. Taxiway is a connecting path between airport components used for aircraft movement by taxiing, floating, or towing.

Article 6. Aircraft parking area is a designated area within the airport, on land, water surface, or artificial structures for aircraft parking to serve passenger boarding and deplaning; loading and unloading baggage, cargo; refueling; technical services or preparation for the next flight.

Article 7. Airport runway includes the flight strip and aircraft parking areas ensuring aircraft takeoff, landing, and taxiing.

Article 8. Flight strip is the main component of the airport runway, including paved or earth runways, water areas on sea, river, lake with coordinates and boundaries for aircraft, seaplanes to take off and land; safety zones at the ends and sides.

Article 9. Reference point of a special purpose airport is a conventionally determined point indicating the location of the airport according to the VN2000 or WGS-84 coordinate system (longitude, latitude, minutes, seconds).

Article 10. Infrastructure of a special purpose airport includes: A complete system of runways, taxiways, parking areas, water areas serving aircraft takeoff and landing; shoulders, safety zones, and other auxiliary facilities of the airport; fences, buoys defining boundaries, airport roads; buildings such as terminals, warehouses, control towers, and stations, workshops serving flight operations; fuel supply, power, water supply and drainage infrastructure, search and rescue, fire prevention facilities at the airport.

Article 11. Surrounding area of a special purpose airport is the land or water area around the airport where aviation obstacle heights are specified to ensure safety.

Article 12. Airport airspace is the safe airspace surrounding the airport for aircraft to perform takeoff, climb, descent, landing, and fly along flight paths.

Article 13. Airport elevation, landing and takeoff area elevation is the height of the highest point of the runway, parking area above mean sea level.

Article 14. Building elevation is the minimum mandatory construction height chosen in accordance with the height above mean sea level.

Article 15. Owner of a special purpose airport is an organization or individual investing capital in construction or purchasing, or being assigned assets attached to land, water, artificial structures to construct, manage, and operate a special purpose airport.

Article 16. Operator of a special purpose airport is an organization or individual authorized by a competent state agency to open or close a special purpose airport, landing and takeoff area.

Article 17. Consulting unit is a unit having sufficient qualifications and capabilities suitable for carrying out design, inspection, testing, project management, construction supervision, and other consulting work related to special purpose airports.

Article 18. Approval document for opening and closing a special purpose airport is a legal document issued by a competent state agency for the owner of a special purpose airport to build new, repair, renovate, open, or close a special purpose airport.

16. The operator of a dedicated airport is an organization or individual who has been issued an approval document by a competent state agency for the opening or closing of a dedicated airport, takeoff and landing area.

17. A consulting unit is an entity that meets the necessary qualifications and capabilities to carry out design work, inspection, testing, project management, construction supervision, and other consulting tasks related to dedicated airports.

18. The approval document for the opening or closing of a dedicated airport is a legal document issued by a competent state agency to the owner of the dedicated airport for the purpose of constructing, repairing, renovating, opening, or closing such an airport.

Article 4. Basic Principles for Opening and Closing Special Purpose Airports

1. Ensuring harmony between national interests and community interests, meeting defense, security, sovereignty, economic development, social development, and international integration tasks.

2. Developing special purpose airport systems in accordance with industry development plans, regional, and local planning.

3. Ensuring aviation security and safety; social order and safety; defense and security tasks in conjunction with economic and social development; protecting the environment and minimizing impacts on the community; ensuring spatial architectural synchronization, safety, and security regarding social infrastructure systems and technical infrastructure.

4. Facilitating agencies, organizations, and individuals in managing, using, and operating special purpose airports and organizing air activities in accordance with legal regulations.

6. Meeting technical standards and specifications issued or recognized for application to special purpose airports by competent state authorities.

Article 5. Classification of Special Purpose Airports

Based on structural characteristics and location, special purpose airports are classified as follows:

1. Ground-based special purpose airports.

2. Water-based special purpose airports.

3. Ground-based takeoff and landing sites.

4. Water-based takeoff and landing sites.

5. Takeoff and landing sites on artificial structures including: buildings, ship decks, platform houses, oil drilling platforms.

Chapter II

MANAGEMENT OF SPECIAL PURPOSE AIRPORTS

Article 6. Management of Construction of Special Purpose Airports

Article 7. Content of Approval of Location of Special Purpose Airports

1. Determining the basis, formation requirements, operational needs of special purpose airports, ensuring national defense, security, and serving the country's economic and social development.

2. Determining the location of special purpose airports including: type, role, position, scale; forecasting planned flight routes; land and water usage needs; estimated investment costs.

3. The scale ratio of the special purpose airport location drawing is 1/2000.

Article 8. Content of Approval of Design for Construction of Special Purpose Airports

1. Land and water area usage needs, man-made structure surfaces for special purpose airports.

2. Position and geographic coordinates of special purpose airports on land and water, layout of auxiliary facilities within the airport.

3. Determining the takeoff and landing directions of special purpose airports, navigation equipment, and flight control.

4. Determining the obstacle limitation surface diagram according to regulations.

5. Internal traffic system within the airport, connecting routes to the special purpose airport.

6. Water supply, drainage, power supply, escape routes, fire prevention, and aviation warning systems (if applicable).

7. Takeoff and landing procedures for aircraft types used.

8. Total investment estimate and time, progress schedule for implementation.

9. The detailed drawing scale ratio of special purpose airports is 1/500.

Article 9. Management of boundary markers and boundaries of dedicated airports

The owner of the airport shall be responsible for coordinating with relevant agencies of the Ministry of National Defense and the People's Committee of the province in managing and protecting the boundary markers and boundaries of dedicated airports; promptly reporting to the competent authority to handle any issues that arise to ensure absolute aviation security and safety.

Chapter III

OPENING AND CLOSING OF DEDICATED AIRPORTS

Article 10. Conditions for opening and closing dedicated airports

a) Serving the national defense strategy, economic and social development;

b) Consistent with the planning for transportation development, social and urban infrastructure;

c) Having a workforce with sufficient technical qualifications to operate and manage dedicated airports;

d) Complying with relevant legal regulations on airspace management, land management, environment, water surface, sea surface, airspace management, restricted flight zones, prohibited flight zones;

đ) The airport owner has been issued a Certificate of Registration and Operating Permit for the dedicated airport proposed to be opened for regular commercial flights.

2. Closing dedicated airports when any of the following situations occur:

a) The operation of the dedicated airport affects national defense, security, sovereignty, and national interests; impacts aviation safety and security, the environment, and involves other illegal activities;

b) The dedicated airport has exceeded its usage period or poses a risk of causing safety hazards affecting flight safety;

c) The dedicated airport no longer conforms to overall urban planning, regional planning, sectoral planning, local planning; affects boundaries, spatial development orientation, disrupts protective corridors for national defense and security facilities and other protected areas as stipulated by law;

d) Construction of the dedicated airport does not comply with detailed construction designs or does not adhere to applicable technical standards for the project;

đ) Due to urgent requirements for land use, water area use to serve national defense and security tasks and urban spatial development; construction of economic and political centers according to local socio-economic development plans or another airport has replaced it offering higher value in terms of national defense, security, economy, and society; or using the dedicated airport for purposes other than intended, affecting lawful activities in public and shared areas;

e) At the request of the airport owner.

3. Temporarily closing dedicated airports when any of the following situations occur:

a) Ensuring national defense, security, or special reasons affecting the economy and society, or sudden incidents affecting flight safety and aviation security as prescribed by law;

b) Upgrading, expanding, or repairing the dedicated airport may cause flight safety risks;

c) The airport owner or operator violates regulations related to national sovereignty and security, requiring suspension of flight operations for investigation;

d) Natural disasters, epidemics, environmental pollution, aircraft accidents, and other unusual situations threatening flight safety and aviation security;

đ) No flight activity for six consecutive months;

e) At the request of the airport owner.

4. Dedicated airports can be reopened after the reasons specified in Clause 3 of this Article have ceased.

1. The application dossier shall include:

a) A request form to open a dedicated airport on land and water surfaces according to Model No. 01 attached to this Decree;

b) A general layout plan and detailed layout plan of the airport area, including the construction level, reference points of the airport, basic dimensions and directions of runways, taxiways, aircraft parking areas, and other infrastructure works; boundaries of the airport construction land;

c) A description of the airspace operation area of the airport; flight procedures; air routes passing through the airport within a radius of 30 kilometers from the airport's reference point;

d) An obstruction clearance surface plan, clearly showing longitudinal and transverse clearances; positions and heights of all obstructions in the vicinity of the airport within a radius of 10 kilometers from the airport's reference point;

đ) A description of management, exploitation, aviation security and safety assurance, environmental protection, flight control organization, and coordination of flight notifications;

e) Certified copies of land use right certificates, ownership certificates of houses and other assets attached to the land; certificates issued by local authorities regarding inland waterway, coastal, and marine water management and use; investment registration certificates, business registration certificates;

2. Procedures and formalities for handling requests:

a) Organizations and individuals requesting to open dedicated airports on land and water surfaces submit one set of documents as stipulated in Clause 1 of this Article via the postal system to the General Staff Office at the address specified in Article 19 of this Decree;

b) Within fifteen working days from the date of receiving complete and valid documents as stipulated in Clause 1 of this Article, the General Staff Office shall be responsible for reviewing, inspecting, and seeking the unified opinion of the Ministry of Transport and the participation opinions of the provincial People's Committee where the dedicated airport on land and water surfaces is located;

In case the documents are not valid, within five working days from the date of receipt of the documents, the General Staff Office shall notify in writing the organizations and individuals requesting to open dedicated airports on land and water surfaces to perfect their documents in accordance with regulations;

c) Within ten working days from the date of receiving the request letter from the General Staff Office, the Ministry of Transport and the provincial People's Committee where the dedicated airport is located shall respond in writing to the General Staff Office;

d) Within fifteen working days from the date of receiving the unified opinion letter from the Ministry of Transport and the response letter from the provincial People's Committee, the General Staff Office shall issue a letter approving the opening of dedicated airports on land and water surfaces;

In case of non-approval, the General Staff Office shall respond in writing and specify the reasons for non-approval;

Article 12. Procedures and formalities for closing dedicated airports on land and water surfaces

1. The owner of the dedicated airport on land and water surfaces proposing to close the airport shall submit a request form according to Model No. 02 attached to this Decree;

a) The owner of the dedicated airport on land and water surfaces shall submit one set of documents as stipulated in Clause 1 of this Article via the postal system to the General Staff Office at the address specified in Article 19 of this Decree;

b) In case the documents are not valid, within five working days, the General Staff Office shall notify in writing the owner of the airport to perfect their documents in accordance with regulations;

c) Within ten working days from the date of receiving complete and valid documents, the General Staff Office shall issue a decision to close the dedicated airport on land and water surfaces after obtaining the unified opinion of the Ministry of Transport and notifying the owner of the airport, relevant agencies, organizations, and individuals;

1. The application dossier shall include:

a) A request form to open a landing zone according to Model No. 03 of the Appendix issued under this Decree;

b) Layout plans of the landing zone site; overall layout plans of the land area and artificial structures; detailed layout plans of the landing zone showing clearly the construction level, reference points, basic dimensions of the landing zone; location of the landing zone on artificial structures; primary takeoff and landing directions; for ground and water landing zones, layout diagrams of the boundary of the construction land and water areas;

c) Description of the airspace activity area of the landing zone; flight procedures, air traffic control organization, flight notification coordination;

d) Obstacle limitation surface plan of the aviation, clearly showing longitudinal and transverse clearances; positions and heights of all aviation obstacles within a radius of 03 kilometers from the reference point of the landing zone;

đ) Description of management, operation, air security and safety assurance, environmental protection plans;

e) Certified copies of land use right certificates, ownership certificates of houses and other assets attached to the land; construction permits, establishment permits of artificial structures issued by competent state agencies where the landing zone is established; investment registration certificates, business registration certificates.

2. Procedures and formalities for handling:

a) Organizations and individuals requesting to open a landing zone shall submit one set of documents as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article through the postal system to the General Staff Department at the address specified in Article 19 of this Decree;

b) Within fifteen working days from the date of receipt of complete and valid documents as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article, the General Staff Department shall be responsible for reviewing, inspecting, and requesting opinions from the Ministry of Transport and the People's Committee of the province where the landing zone is located;

In case the documents are not valid, within five working days from the date of receipt of the documents, the General Staff Department shall notify in writing the organizations and individuals requesting to open the landing zone to complete the documents in accordance with regulations;

c) Within ten working days from the date of receipt of the request letter from the General Staff Department, the Ministry of Transport and the People's Committee of the province where the landing zone is located shall respond in writing to the General Staff Department;

d) Within fifteen working days from the date of receipt of the unified opinion letter from the Ministry of Transport and the response letter from the People's Committee of the province, the General Staff Department shall issue a letter approving the opening of the landing zone;

In case of non-approval, the General Staff Office shall respond in writing and specify the reasons for non-approval;

Article 14. Procedures and formalities for closing ground, water, and artificial structure landing zones

1. The owner requesting to close a landing zone shall submit a request form according to Model No. 04 of the Appendix issued under this Decree.

a) The owner of the landing zone shall submit one set of documents as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article through the postal system to the General Staff Department at the address specified in Article 19 of this Decree;

b) In case the documents are not valid, within five working days, the General Staff Department shall notify in writing the owner of the landing zone to complete the documents in accordance with regulations;

c) Within ten working days from the date of receipt of complete and valid documents, the General Staff Department shall issue a decision to close the landing zone after receiving a unified opinion letter from the Ministry of Transport and notifying the owner of the landing zone and related agencies, organizations, and individuals;

Article 15. Procedures for opening helicopter landing pads on deck

a) A request form to open landing pads according to Model No. 05 of the Appendix issued under this Decree;

b) Cross-sectional and longitudinal drawings showing the height of systems and equipment on the deck, the dimensions of the deck surface, the size of the landing pad on the deck, and adjacent parts;

c) An explanation describing the management and operation methods for helicopters, safety measures, fire prevention, and flight control organization and coordination.

a) The entity, organization, or individual requesting to open landing pads on the deck shall submit one set of documents as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article through the postal service to the General Staff Department at the address specified in Article 19 of this Decree;

b) Within fifteen working days from the date of receiving complete valid documents as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article, the General Staff Department shall be responsible for reviewing, inspecting, and issuing a document seeking the unified opinion of the Ministry of Transport.

In case the documents are not valid, within five working days from the date of receipt of the documents, the General Staff Department shall notify in writing the organizations and individuals requesting to open the landing zone to complete the documents in accordance with regulations;

c) Within ten working days from the date of receiving the document requesting the opinion of the General Staff Department, the Ministry of Transport and related competent agencies shall issue a reply sent back to the General Staff Department;

d) Within fifteen working days from the date of receiving the unified document of the Ministry of Transport and the reply of related competent agencies, the General Staff Department shall issue a document approving the opening of landing pads.

In case of non-approval, the General Staff Office shall respond in writing and specify the reasons for non-approval;

Article 16. Procedures for closing helicopter landing pads on deck

1. The owner requesting to close landing pads shall submit a request form according to Model No. 06 of the Appendix issued under this Decree.

a) The owner of the landing zone shall submit one set of documents as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article through the postal system to the General Staff Department at the address specified in Article 19 of this Decree;

b) In case the documents are not valid, within five working days, the General Staff Department shall notify in writing the owner of the landing zone to complete the documents in accordance with regulations;

c) Within ten working days from the date of receiving complete valid documents, the General Staff Department shall issue a decision to close landing pads after obtaining a unified document from the Ministry of Transport and notifying the ship owner and related entities, organizations, and individuals.

Article 17. Procedures for temporarily closing dedicated airports

1. The owner of the dedicated airport requesting temporary closure shall submit a request form according to Model No. 07 of the Appendix issued under this Decree.

a) The owner of the dedicated airport shall submit one set of documents as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article through the postal service to the General Staff Department at the address specified in Article 19 of this Decree;

b) In cases where the documents are not valid, within five working days, the General Staff Department shall be responsible for issuing a written notice to the owner of the dedicated airport to complete the documents as required;

c) Within ten working days from the date of receiving complete valid documents, the General Staff Department shall issue a decision to temporarily close the dedicated airport after obtaining a unified document from the Ministry of Transport and notifying the airport owner and related entities, organizations, and individuals.

3. When the operation of the dedicated airport violates any of the conditions stipulated in points a, b, c, d, đ of Clause 3 of Article 10, the General Staff Department shall issue a decision to temporarily close the dedicated airport.

Article 18. Procedures and formalities for reopening dedicated airports

1. The application dossier shall include:

a) A request to reopen a dedicated airport according to Model 08 issued under this Decree;

b) Documents and materials issued by competent state agencies that granted permission to temporarily close dedicated airports.

a) The organization or individual requesting to reopen a dedicated airport shall submit one set of documents in accordance with Clause 1 of this Article through the postal system to the General Staff Department at the address specified in Article 19 of this Decree;

b) Within fifteen working days from the date of receiving complete valid documents as stipulated in Clause 1 of this Article, the General Staff Department shall be responsible for reviewing, inspecting, and seeking opinions in writing from the Ministry of Transport and the People's Committee of the province where the dedicated airport is located on land or water;

In case the documents are not valid, within five working days from the date of receipt of the documents, the General Staff Department shall notify in writing the organization or individual requesting to reopen the dedicated airport to perfect the documents in accordance with regulations;

c) Within ten working days from the date of receiving the request letter from the General Staff Office, the Ministry of Transport and the provincial People's Committee where the dedicated airport is located shall respond in writing to the General Staff Office;

d) Within fifteen working days from the date of receiving the unified opinion letter from the Ministry of Transport and the reply letter from the People's Committee of the province, the General Staff Department shall issue a document approving the reopening of the dedicated airport;

In case of non-approval, the General Staff Department shall respond in writing and specify the reasons for non-approval.

Article 19. Agency Receiving Applications for Opening, Closing, and Reopening Dedicated Airports

The Operations Directorate of the General Staff Department shall receive applications and be responsible for checking their validity before submitting them to the competent authority for consideration and decision.

Chapter IV

RESPONSIBILITIES OF MINISTRIES, SECTORS, LOCALITIES, ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS RELATED TO DEDICATED AIRPORTS

Article 20. Ministry of National Defense

2. To organize information management about dedicated airports, define the responsibilities and tasks of subordinate agencies and units under the Ministry of National Defense and provincial Military Command Departments; manage the opening, closing, and reopening of dedicated airports.

3. To take the lead in supervising, urging, and coordinating with ministries, sectors, and provincial authorities to guide inspections, audits, supervision, prevention, and handling of violations in the opening, closing, and operation of dedicated airports.

4. To promulgate technical standards for construction and management of infrastructure, technical safety, environmental protection; direct the inspection of compliance with technical standards and norms of dedicated airports.

5. To implement requisition of dedicated airports according to the provisions of the law when truly necessary for national defense, security reasons, or for the national interest, emergency situations, disaster prevention and control.

1. To take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense to implement legal provisions regarding the organization and operation of common air transport activities; participate in guiding security and safety at dedicated airports; implement coordination regulations in the inspection, audit, and supervision of dedicated airport operations.

2. To coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense and provincial People's Committees in managing, operating, opening, closing, temporarily closing, and reopening dedicated airports.

3. To coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense, relevant ministries, sectors, and provincial People's Committees in managing, preventing, and handling activities of dedicated airports affecting national defense, security; economy, and society.

4. To coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense to implement requisition of dedicated airports according to the law; in cases of real necessity due to national defense and security reasons or for the national interest, emergency situations, disaster prevention and control.

Article 22. Provincial People's Committees, municipal people's committees under the central government

1. Coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense to uniformly implement legal provisions on the opening, closing, and reopening of dedicated airports; manage, detect, prevent, and handle activities of dedicated airports that affect national defense, security, economic and social development at the local level.

2. Coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense to carry out requisitioning of dedicated airports according to legal regulations when truly necessary for reasons of national defense, security, or national interest, emergency situations, disaster prevention and control.

3. Coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense to strengthen airspace management, flight management, strict management of dedicated airports, ensuring order, security, and social safety.

Article 23. Related organizations and individuals

1. Construction, management, and operation of dedicated airports must meet technical requirements and standards regarding location, operation, and use of dedicated airports; comply with inspections by competent state agencies regarding airport operations; ensure conditions for aviation security, fire prevention, environmental hygiene, public order, and social safety.

2. Properly implement regulations on management, operation, and use of dedicated airports without harming national defense, security, national interests and sovereignty, public order, and social safety, or engaging in illegal acts.

3. Comply with legal regulations on the opening, closing of dedicated airports, and requisitioning of dedicated airports as stipulated by law.

Chapter V

IMPLEMENTING PROVISIONS

Article 24. Budget

The budget for determining locations and approving detailed design plans for construction of dedicated airports shall be sourced from the state budget, financial support from domestic and foreign organizations and individuals, and other lawful sources of capital.

Article 25. Handling Violations

Agencies, organizations, and individuals violating the management and operation of dedicated airports or failing to fulfill their responsibilities as prescribed in this Decree and related legal documents shall be subject to disciplinary action, administrative violation handling, or criminal liability prosecution according to legal regulations depending on the nature and severity of the violations.

Article 26. Effective date

This Decree takes effect from July 1, 2016.

Article 27. Responsibility for Implementation

Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of governmental agencies, Chairpersons of provincial and municipal people's committees under the central government, and relevant Vietnamese and foreign organizations and individuals are responsible for implementing this Decree./.