Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Le VanThanh has asked ministries, sectors and relevant localities to coordinateclosely to reach consensus on the location and total expanded areas of theNoi Bai International Airport in the suburbs of Hanoi.

Inspecting the implementation of a project to make planningfor the airport in the 2021-2030 period with a vision to 2050 on September 21, Thanh held thatwith the fast recovery and development of the aviation sector, it is quite possible for the airport to welcome 50 million passengers per year by 2030.

Therefore, it may be overloaded and face congestionsin the future if it is not expanded in a timely manner, he said.

The official underlined the need for the airport to become more modernwith a larger scale, deserving its role in the capital city.

It is necessary to promptly complete and approve the airport’splanning, then quickly design investment policy for the project to report toauthorised agencies, he stressed.

Ministries, sectors and localities were requested to fulfilledtheir assigned tasks to ensure that the construction of new runways and terminalsof the airport will commence within 2024-2025.

According to the Ministry of Transport, currently Noi Bai InternationalAirport has two passenger terminals with a total capacity of serving 25 millionpassengers per year, and a cargo one that can handle 403,000 tonnes each year.In the 2010-2019 period, the average growth in the number of passengers was13.4%, while that of goods was 14.5%. In 2019, the airport served over 29million passengers and handled 695,325 tonnes of goods, it said.

Director of the Civil Aviation Agency of Vietnam (CAAV) said that Frenchadvisory agency ADPi has built the planning since June 2019.

Under the planning, by 2030, the airport is expected to havea third runway and three passenger terminals. The airport's existing terminalT2 will be expanded so that the combined capacity of Terminals T1 and T2 willreach 30-40 million passengers per year, and a new Terminal T3 with a capacityof 30 million passengers per year will be built to the south.

By 2050, the CAAV estimates the airport to serve 100 millionpassengers and handle 5 million tonnes of cargo each year.

Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Trong Dong said that thecity basically agrees with the development planning of the airport, pledgingthat it is willing to engage in ground clearance activities for the project./.