France could provide $1.3m in ODA funding for a consultancy project to study the expansion of Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi to serve up to 80-100 million passengers per year with a view to 2050.

   

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Noi Bai Airport is overloaded


The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) has proposed to the Ministry of Transport to seek approval for assistance from the French government on the detailed planning for Noi Bai International Airport until 2030, with a vision toward 2050.

The project aims are to expand Noi Bai Airport and synchronise the airport's planning with the city's transportation development planning. The construction is expected to last 12 months. The French government would provide USD1.3m in non-refundable ODA and the rest would come from the state budget.

On August 6, the Embassy of France in Vietnam expressed interests about the proposal from CAAV. They are waiting for the Vietnamese agencies to send official documents about the costs and Vietnam's investment in the project to ADPi Engineering, a French airport architecture and engineering company.

In the embassy also said they had no requirements for the ODA as long as the Vietnamese counterpart could make proper use of the project.

Dinh Viet Thang, head of the CAAV, said according to the plan, Noi Bai Airport would meet 4E standards in 2020 with capacity to serve 25 million passengers per year. In the next 10 years, its capacity will reach 35 million and 50 million passengers in the next years.

As of now, the airport is overloaded. It has a capacity of 21 million passengers per year, but accommodated some 24 million passengers in 2017.

Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho has urged related agencies to quickly review the planning and look to expand the airport to the south. Their aim is to increase the capacity to 100 million passengers a year in 2050.

On October 12, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung approved the proposal to use French ODA. He asked the Ministry of Transport to speed up the procedures and submit reports in June 2019.

Dtinews