New Vietnam international airport to open in December

The Van Don International Airport in northeast Vietnam, near the famous Ha Long Bay, will open to traffic in December this year, the investor has said.

This is the first airport in the country that has been built with the entire capital of VND7.5 trillion ($330 million) mobilized locally.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Transport had decided that Van Don will be an international airport that will be used for both commercial and military purposes.

The airport aims to accommodate 2-2.5 million passengers annually by 2020, and 5 million by 2030.

By 2020, it is planned that the Van Don airport will have a 3.6 kilometer runway able to host Boeing 777, 787, 747-400, Airbus A350 and other aircraft.

Sun Group, the investor, will inform the Prime Minister next month about the airport’s opening schedule, Vietnam News Agency reported.

As Van Don District is among the three special economic zones planned in the country, the airport is expected to boost the local economy, including tourism at Ha Long Bay.

The airport is roughly 44 kilometers northeast of the world heritage site in Quang Ninh Province.

Over the past five months, Ha Long has held many events including the launch of the National Tourism Year 2018 - Ha Long - Quang Ninh and Carnival Ha Long 2018 which attracted tens of thousands of visitors.

The bay has helped Quang Ninh welcome 6.6 million visitors as of May 2018, including 2.17 million foreigners, according to official figures. Year-on-year tourism revenues for the period rose 32 percent to reach VND11 trillion ($483,450).