VietNamNet Bridge - The new airport will be built opposite the current Noi Bai International Airport at a cost of about US$5.5 billion, said the head of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) Lai Xuan Thanh.

Noi Bai Airport.

Thanh said CAAV is working on the project to build the second Noi Bai airport to offload the current airport.

The new airport will be built on 720 hectares, in an area spanning three communes of Phu Minh, Phu Cuong, and Mai Dinh of Soc Son district, Hanoi.

The spending for site clearance, land compensation and the construction of resettlement areas for local residents is estimated at $2 billion.

The capital for building the main facilities of the second Noi Bai airport is about $3.5 billion, coming from various sources.

According to CAAV, the current Noi Bai International Airport has a design capacity of 25 million passengers per year.

At the current growth rate of passengers (22% in 2015 and 31% in January-April 2016), Noi Bai will be overloaded in the very near future, like Tan Son Nhat airport in HCM City at present. Therefore, the construction of a new airport is urgent.

However, Thanh said it would be very difficult to raise the capacity of Noi Bai by additional 25 million passengers per year because the population density in this area is dense, so clearance will be very tough.

CAAV is collecting opinions of relevant agencies on the project.

Le Ha