Of these, 470 will be at the managerial level and the rest with varying degrees of skills and competence in different sectors including construction, transport and aviation.

Huynh Van Tinh, director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in the southern province of Dong Nai, where the new airport will be located, said local residents will be prioritized for employment in airport-related work.

The department is preparing to counsel students near the airport to pursue aviation-related careers and plans to provide training for jobs at the airport, he added.

An estimated 13,500 residents are set to be affected by the construction of the airport, and a survey by the department covering 6,500 of them found that their incomes are likely to be 25-75 percent lower after their land is acquired.

Work on the first of two resettlement areas for the Long Thanh Airport began last month and residents are set to receive their land lots in August.

Dong Nai authorities have approved compensation rates for land to build the airport at VND0.16-6.5 million ($7-277) per square meter. Residents are expected to receive their money this month.

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), which operates 22 airports, had said earlier that construction of the first of three phases of the airport could begin in May 2021 and be completed late 2025 if it is assigned to be the project investor.

After the first phase is complete, the airport will have one runway and one terminal capable of handling 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo a year.

Total investment for all three phases is estimated at VND336.63 trillion ($16 billion), with the first phase alone costing VND111.69 trillion ($4.8 billion).

When all three phases are completed as expected in 2050, the airport should be able to handle 100 million passengers a year, easily picking up overflow from the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, which is currently operating at far above its designed capacity.