Sole airport in Vietnam’s northwest to close for upgrade

Dien Bien Airport in Dien Bien Province in northwestern Vietnam will suspend operations for at least six months starting in late March while an expansion project is completed.

State-owned Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV), which operates all 22 commercial airports nationwide, said the project includes work to expand the taxiway and runway as well as the parking lot and passenger terminal.

ACV will choose contractors for the project, which will cost VND1.467 trillion (US$62.38 million) of the state budget.

As planned, the new runway will extend 2.4 kilometers long and 45 meters wide so that it can accommodate A320/A321 aircraft and planes of equivalent sizes.

The passenger terminal will be upgraded to serve 500,000 passengers per year from the current capacity of 300,000 per year.

The entire project is set to be completed within the third quarter this year.

At present, the site designated for the project has not been cleared and the ACV has asked the Dien Bien Airport authorities to speed up the site clearance process.

Dien Bien is the only airport in the northwestern region, which comprises of six provinces and the other five are Hoa Binh, Son La, Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Yen Bai.

The airport, originally a military airport built in 1954, began commercial operations in 1994. It has one 1,830-meter runway that can handle short-haul ATR72 aircraft and smaller ones.

By Anh Duy – VnExpress.net – January 27, 2023