The government is considering the expansion of Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport to handle 80-100 million passengers a year by 2050.
Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has just instructed the Ministry of Transport to review the airport expansion plan drafted years ago.
Noi Bai is one of Vietnam’s most important airports and an international gateway to the north, but is overloaded, he said. The airport has a capacity of 25 million passengers and last year served 23 million.
He told the ministry to work with consultancies to finalize plans for the development of the airport until 2030 with a vision to 2050.
It should also collaborate with city authorities to come up with a plan for land acquisition and resettlement of people, he added.
The plan sought to increase the airport’s capacity to 50 million by 2030 and 80-100 million by 2050.
It was estimated to totally cost $5.5 billion, $3.5 billion for construction and $2 billion for land acquisition and resettlement of affected people.
The funding for the review of any changes to the plan will come from non-refundable official development assistance from France.
The transport ministry last month ordered repairs to the airport to fix cracks in the runway and material falling off between concrete slabs.
In August airport operator Airports Corporation of Vietnam said it plans to upgrade 16 of the 21 civilian airports in the country, including Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat in HCMC.
It estimated a price tag of VND56.7 trillion ($2.4 billion).
Vietnam’s aviation industry has experienced rapid development in recent years.
There were more than 9.4 million air passengers in the first nine months of this year, a 17.4 percent rise year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office.
Source: VN Express International
