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Military aircraft could use the airport for training from 2024, said Le Ngoc Tien, director of the Department of Planning and Investment of Binh Thuan Province.
The runway to serve the military airport is almost complete and will be finished next month, Tien told a province's meeting on Monday.
Work started on the airport in 2015 and was halted before it was resumed in 2021.
In 2009, the government approved a plan to build Phan Thiet airport in the eponymous beach resort city, which lies more than four hours east of Ho Chi Minh City.
The original plan said the airport would span 543 hectares for both civilian and military purposes and would be funded under the build-operate-transfer format by Hanoi-based Rang Dong JSC. It also said work would start in 2015 for the project to be finished in 2018.
In 2017, Binh Thuan proposed to extend the airport's runway from 2,400 meters to 3,050 meters in order to raise its capabilities and allow it to handle Airbus A320s or equivalent sized, as well as advanced military aircraft.
The proposal was approved by the government that year, which means the cost of the airport will stay at around VND10 trillion ($434 million) and will be built using the state budget.
