Noi Bai airport completes runway upgrade

Noi Bai's 1A runway served the first flight on Thursday after renovation.

Work on the runway was started last October and was part of a large-scale project launched last July to renovate the capital airport.

Costing a total VND2.03 trillion ($87.4 million) of the state budget, the project comprises upgrades of runways 1A and 1B.

It also includes construction of three new taxiways, upgrades to existing ones, new indicator lighting along with a drainage system and other flight management facilities.

According to airport officials, upgrades would better serve flight safety.

The maximum frequency of flights per hour at the airport will also be higher than before, they said.

Runway 1B had been seriously damaged after 16 years of operation while runway 1A is of better quality thanks to an upgrade six years ago.

Since 2017, Noi Bai has been chronically overloaded, receiving new-generation aircraft with huge loads, which has degraded its runways and taxiways.

The number of passengers and cargo passing through the airport has been increasing by an average 10 percent per year to nearly 26 million passengers in 2018 and about 29 million in 2019. However, the airport is only designed to handle 25 million passengers per year, with domestic terminal T1 having a capacity of 15 million and international terminal T2 10 million.