Vietnam to upgrade northern airport
Vietnam will invest some 33.3 million U.S. dollars to upgrade an airport in northern Dien Bien province from now to 2025, Vietnam News Agency reported Friday.
Under a master plan worked out by the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, 140 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (9.3 million U.S. dollars) will be used to upgrade aviation standard of the Dien Bien Airport till 2015 so that it can annually serve 200, 000 passengers.
From 2016 to 2025, some 382 billion VND (over 24 million dollars) will be spent on expanding the airport to 120.8 hectares for both civil and military purposes. It is scheduled to handle 200,000 passengers annually in the period.
Now, the airport conducts 10-14 flights a week between Dien Bien and Hanoi capital. It is expected to offer flights to China's Kunming city, Thailand's Chiang Mai province, and some other destinations in the Greater Mekong Sub-region in the future time, the report said.
The Dien Bien Airport served over 4,000 passengers and thousands of tons of cargo in the first two months of this year.
Xinhua - March 11, 2006.
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