Dien Bien Airport in the northwestern province of Dien Bien will suspend operations from April 1 for an airport upgrade and expansion project.
Dien Bien Airport
An official from the Dien Bien Provincial People's Committee on March 6 told Dantri/Dtinews that the closure followed a proposal from the Vietnam Airports Corporation and the project included work to expand the taxiway and runway as well as the parking lot and passenger terminal.
According to the official, the project would cost VND1.467 trillion (USD62.38 million) and the investor has promised to complete it by October this year.
As planned, the new runway will extend 2.4 kilometres further be widened to 45 metres so that it could accommodate A320/A321 size aircraft.
The passenger terminal, once upgraded, could serve 500,000 passengers per year up from the current capacity of 300,000 per year.
"We’ll try to monitor and co-operate with the investor to finish the project on time so that the airport can resume operations before December 15 this year," the official said.
Dien Bien, which is the only airport in the northwestern region, has one 1,830-metre runway that can handle maximum short-haul ATR72 aircraft.
