The airport can now handle up to 500,000 passengers a year.
The work cost the Airports Corporation of Vietnam VND1.460 trillion (US$60.1 million) while land costing VND1.55 trillion was provided by Dien Bien Province.
The work included upgrades to the runway, taxiway and apron runway, and passenger terminal and installation of a lighting system and security fence.
The passenger terminal (pictured) is now a two-floor affair with the first floor used for arrivals and departures.
The second floor has a waiting area, a lounge for business class travelers, retail stores, and services.
On one side of the waiting room is a 90-square-meter room for business class passengers.
On the other is a dining area and smoking room.
The new runway, built near the old one, is 2,400 m long and can accommodate aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and A321.
The lighting system to guide aircraft at night and during bad weather.
It meets standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
On Dec. 1 a Vietnam Airlines aircraft landed at the airport to test technical parameters.
Vietnam Airlines and another domestic carrier, Vietjet Air, are the only ones flying to Dien Bien Airport.
On Saturday budget airline Vietjet starts operating the first direct flight from HCMC to Dien Bien and Vietnam Airlines launches daily flights between Hanoi and Dien Bien.
A memorial on the airport premises has been left untouched and is now between the old and new runways.
The airport is not far from the battlefields made famous by the defeat of the French in 1954 at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
The victory by the Vietnamese guerilla insurgency over one of the world’s mightiest colonial armies brought about an end to French control of Indochina.
