The request was made following several incidents of dogs straying into areas near and inside the airport, disrupting activities, including delaying the landing of an aircraft. Previous reports have said that the dogs enter the airport premises through unattended gates and breaches in fences.

The SAA has sent documents to certain divisions of the People’s Army of Vietnam and the military steering committee responsible for guarding the airport, local media reported.

Late last month, the SAA found several stray dogs and dogs that were raised near the airport. One dog was found in a nearby football field and five were found in a parking lot of the Sai Gon Nam Viet textile company.

Authorities had requested that the dogs be taken out of the areas and the relevant agencies had assured that the incidents would not be repeated. But an inspection earlier this month still saw dogs in the aforementioned areas.

The SAA has therefore requested that the practice of raising dogs within military areas and releasing them near the airport be stopped.

Dogs disrupting airport functions are not uncommon in Vietnam. Earlier this month, three flights from Hanoi to HCMC had to delay landing at the Cam Ranh airport in central Vietnam by up to 20 minutes after a dog was found near a water ditch running across a runway.

In January, a flight from HCMC to central Thanh Hoa Province’s Tho Xuan Airport also had to delay landing for 10 minutes after a dog was spotted in an empty apron.