The Vietnam 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 requested the Ministry of Transport to coordinate with experts and consultancy firms to review the development planning scheme drafted years ago. He told the ministry to work with consultancies to finalize plans for the development of the airport until 2030 with a vision to 2050.
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.
The ministry was asked to consider the possibility to expand the airport to the north to raise its capacity to 50 million passengers per year in the first phase. In the second phase, the Noi Bai airport will probably be enlarged towards the south, enabling it to accommodate 80-100 million passengers annually.
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.
Sources: english.vietnamnet.vn, e.vnexpress.net