Nội Bài International Airport in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hùng

HÀ NỘI — The Civil Aviation Authority of Việt Nam (CAAV) announced it has included a project to develop a second airport in the capital city of Hà Nội in its draft planning on the national system of airports.

Along with the Hà Nội airport project, the authority also added the Cao Bằng airport project in the northern mountainous province of Cao Bằng. The projects will not be executed in the 2020-2030 period but before 2050.

A CAAV representative said on Sunday the authority had completed the draft planning.

CAAV has yet to determine the location of the airport in Hà Nội and has asked the city to propose a location after 2040. Earlier, the municipal Department of Zoning and Architecture proposed building the airport in Ứng Hòa District.

Under the draft planning, Việt Nam will have 26 airports by 2030 instead of 28 as stated in the current plan. The Na San airport project in Sơn La Province and the Lai Châu airport project in Lai Châu Province will be postponed until after 2030.

The draft planning does not include the Hà Tĩnh and Thanh Sơn airport projects as proposed earlier by Hà Tĩnh and Ninh Thuận provinces.

The CAAV also plans to upgrade and expand some airports. Specifically, Nội Bài International Airport in Hà Nội will have three runways by 2030. By 2050, it will have four runways and three new terminals to increase the airport’s annual capacity to 100 million passengers.

In addition, the first phase of the Long Thành International Airport project in Đồng Nai Province was expected to be completed in 2025. It will have four runways and one more terminal to serve 120 million passengers by 2050.

The Đà Nẵng International Airport in Đà Nẵng was planned to be expanded to have three runways to reach a capacity of 40 million passengers per year by 2050.

By 2050, the Thọ Xuân Airport in Thanh Hóa Province will have two runways to annually serve 10 million passengers.

The CAAV estimated the total investment for the projects at some VNĐ365.1 trillion in 2020-2030 and VNĐ866.36 trillion in 2030-2050.

At present, the country is home to 22 airports.  VNS