Departure
95%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Da Nang International Airport (VVDN/DAD) is a major dual-use civil and military airport on Vietnam's central coast, serving the city of Da Nang with two long parallel runways capable of handling wide-body jets. For simulator pilots it offers a substantial airport with ILS-equipped approaches and a long, layered history stretching from French colonial aviation through the Vietnam War to today's busy international gateway.
Da Nang International Airport sits on the south side of the city of Da Nang in central Vietnam, close to the coast and only a short distance from the city centre. It is operated as a joint civil-military facility, sharing its runways with the Vietnamese People's Air Force, though military activity is now limited. For a virtual pilot the appeal lies in its long history as a wartime air base combined with its current role as a busy modern international airport with two large parallel hard runways and full ILS approaches, making it a satisfying destination for airliner and general aviation flying alike in the region.
The airport lies on flat, sandy coastal terrain on the southern edge of Da Nang, Vietnam's largest city in the central region, with unobstructed approaches to its north-south aligned runways. It is a large international airport and would be expected to sit within controlled airspace appropriate to its status as a major hub, with approach, ground and tower services provided as detailed below.
Da Nang has two parallel physical runways, both oriented 17/35. The main runway, 17L/35R, is 11,474 feet long, hard-surfaced and lit, with an ILS serving runway 35R. The second runway, 17R/35L, comprises headings 17R at 9,970 feet and 35L at 9,971 feet, also hard-surfaced and lit, with an ILS serving runway 35L. Both runways are substantial enough to accommodate large modern jet aircraft.
Pilots can expect to work Da Nang Approach on 125.3 MHz, Ground on 121.6 MHz and Tower on 125 MHz. The field is equipped with ILS approaches, available for runways 35R and 35L, supporting instrument arrivals in addition to visual operations.
The airport is located close to the city of Da Nang itself, situated on the coast, which serves as a prominent visual reference for pilots approaching the field. The parallel 17/35 runway pair, aligned north-south with unobstructed approaches over flat, sandy ground, is readily identifiable from the air.
The airfield began as Tourane Airport, built by the French colonial government in the 1940s as a civilian facility on flat coastal ground ideal for unobstructed north-south runway approaches. During the Japanese occupation of French Indochina in the Second World War it was used as a military air base by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, and after the war it served the French Air Force during the First Indochina War, when in 1953-54 the French laid a NATO-standard 7,800-foot asphalt runway and based American-loaned B-26 Invader bombers of the Groupe de Bombardement 1/19 Gascogne there. Following the 1954 Geneva Accords the aircraft were returned to the United States and the field passed to civilian use before the newly formed Republic of Vietnam Air Force re-established a presence in 1957, renaming it Da Nang Airport and basing the 1st Liaison Squadron with Cessna L-19s; the South Vietnamese Army also used the site for ranger training, and Air Vietnam flew domestic and regional international services from the field between 1951 and 1975. During the Vietnam War the base was massively expanded to 2,350 acres with two 10,000-foot asphalt runways with concrete touchdown pads, parallel taxiways and a heliport, and was home to the VNAF's 1st Air Division alongside numerous United States Air Force wings and squadrons and a US Navy detachment. Following the war, the site's history with Agent Orange and other herbicides left high concentrations of dioxin in soil and sediment, a legacy that was the subject of a joint Vietnam-US remediation project completed in 2018.
Da Nang is now Vietnam's third-busiest airport, handling well over ten million passengers a year through separate domestic and international terminals, and serving as a hub for Vietnam Airlines and VASCO and an operating base for Bamboo Airways and VietJet Air. The airport was briefly closed to traffic from 28 July to 7 September 2020 under a Ministry of Transport order to help contain a COVID-19 outbreak in the city. Its two parallel runways continue to handle a mix of civil airliner traffic and limited military use, and further redevelopment, including reconstruction of the older runway, has been proposed.