The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport has recently approved a plan to construct the northern highlands airport in Sa Pa with the capacity of handling 3 million passengers annually, Zing News reported.
Accordingly, the airport will be located in Cam Con commune, Bao Yen district of Lao Cai province, home to the Fansipan peak.
Located 80 kilometers away from the mountain resort town of Sa Pa, the domestic airport will have nine aircraft parking slots, and will be used for both civilian and military purposes.
According to the plan, the 371-hectare airport is categorized 4C level. Its single runway will be able to serve aircraft similar to the narrow-body Airbus A320 or Boeing 737-700 with nine aircraft parking lots. The airport will be used for both civilian and military purposes.
A six-lane road will be built to connect the 371 hectare airport with the existing Hanoi - Lao Cai Expressway.
Authorities in the northern highlands province of Lao Cai, where Sa Pa Town is located, had said that they would need VND3.09 trillion ($133 million) from the state to build the airport.
The central government’s proposed contribution would amount to 52 percent of the airport’s total investment, which is estimated at VND5.9 trillion ($254 million). The province had proposed that construction of the airport begins this year and be completed in 2021.
Items such as the civil aviation area, aviation fuel depot costing about VND1,772 billion (US$76 million) will be built under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) format.
The airport is expected to mainly serve tourists from southern Vietnam and southwestern China.
However, some aviation experts have cautioned that this inflow would be unstable, when compared to the Van Don airport in northern Quang Ninh Province, where Ha Long Bay and other attractions are located.
When built, Sa Pa Airport will become the 23rd airport in Vietnam, 10 of which operate international flights.
The airport is expected to become an impetus to promote socio-economy in Sa Pa and Lao Cai.
Lao Cai welcomed 4.2 million visitors last year, up 20 percent from 2017. 720,000 of them were international tourists.
In the past a large number of tourists traveled to Sa Pa by train from Hanoi to Lao Cai. This has reduced since the $1.5-billion Noi Bai-Lao Cai Expressway was opened in September 2014, with many visitors preferring the five-hour bus ride to an eight-hour overnight trip on the train.
