Dien Bien Airport 'transforms', welcomes modern A321 aircraft for the first time

Vietnam Airlines said that from December 2, 2023, Vietnam Airlines will operate regular flights from Hanoi to Dien Bien with a frequency of 7 flights/week on all days of the week.

The flight departs from Hanoi at 13:05 and arrives in Dien Bien at 14:05. The return flight departs from Dien Bien at 14:45 and lands in Hanoi at 15:35.

From December 2, 2023, Vietnam Airlines will operate regular flights from Hanoi to Dien Bien with a frequency of 7 flights/week on all days of the week.

Dien Bien Airport is about to reopen with a 2,400m runway, meeting technical standards for modern aircraft. Vietnam Airlines will operate the Dien Bien route with Airbus A321 aircraft. This is the aircraft model used by the airline to operate on Asian and domestic routes. Vietnam Airlines' A321 fleet has 3 configurations: 178 seats, 184 seats and 203 seats.

Thus, after many months of closure for upgrading and expansion, Dien Bien airport officially reopened.

The Dien Bien airport expansion project started in January 2022 and officially closed the airport for repairs in April. The project has a total investment of VND 1,467.7 billion, with Vietnam Airports Corporation as the investor. The cost of site clearance has a total investment of VND 1,555 billion from the Dien Bien province budget.

The investment project to build and expand Dien Bien airport has been approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 470/QD-TTg dated March 27, 2021 with the content of investing in the construction and expansion of the runway to meet technical standards for modern aircraft such as A320 and A321.

At the same time, the airport's passenger terminal is designed with two floors, increasing capacity from 300,000 passengers/year to 500,000 passengers/year.

The runway is extended to 2,400 m long and 45 m wide, with 7.5 m wide material shoulders on each side, 100 m long and 60 m wide brake strips at both ends of the runway, and aircraft turn pads at both ends of the runway. In addition, the auxiliary works and civil aviation areas are renovated and newly built to ensure synchronous operation of A320, A321 and equivalent aircraft.

Dien Bien Airport is located in Thanh Truong Ward, Dien Bien Phu City, which was restored from Muong Thanh Airport built by the French in 1939.

In the early days, the airport had a runway measuring only 1,200 x 25m of gravel-graded ground, able to withstand the load of fighter and light transport aircraft such as Morane, Potez... The airport's ancillary facilities in the early days consisted of almost nothing other than a runway, a small aircraft parking lot and drainage ditches.

In 1984, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory, the Hanoi - Dien Bien route used AN24 and AK40 aircraft. Due to technical conditions, after only 10 months of operation, the route was cut to repair the runway. After the repair, the airport resumed operations and the aircraft was ATR72.

From 1990 to 2004, Dien Bien airport invested tens of billions of dong to build new and repair works such as: taxiways, aircraft parking lots, passenger terminals, car parks, air traffic management works, command towers...

Perspective of Dien Bien Phu airport (Illustration photo).

Until 2021, Dien Bien airport is still small in scale with a runway 1,830m long, 30m wide, simple equipment system, aircraft parking lot with 3 parking positions, passenger terminal with capacity of 300,000 passengers/year.

Due to clearance limitations at both ends of the runway, Dien Bien airport can only operate ATR72 and equivalent aircraft during the day (weather permitting).

Previously, this airport only operated the Hanoi - Dien Bien route. By 2021, Bamboo Airways was able to operate the Ho Chi Minh City - Dien Bien route using the Embraer 190 small jet.

In order to develop Dien Bien's economy in particular and the Northwest region's economy in general, on March 27, 2021, the Prime Minister approved the investment policy for the Dien Bien Airport expansion investment project.

Up to now, Dien Bien is the only province with an airport in the 6 northwestern border provinces of our country.

On October 27, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam issued a document on reopening flights to and from Dien Bien airport. Accordingly, the project will be completed and allowed by the Ministry of Transport to resume operations from December 2.

PHAM DUY

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