The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport has recently approved a plan to construct the northern highlands airport in Sapa with the capacity of handling 3 million passengers annually, Zing News reported.

The airport will be located in Cam Con commune, Bao Yen district of Lao Cai province, home to the Fansipan peak. Illustrative photo.

Accordingly, the airport will be located in Cam Con commune, Bao Yen district of Lao Cai province, home to the Fansipan peak.

According to the plan, the 371-hectare airport is categorized 4C level, able to serve aircraft like narrow-body Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 with nine aircraft parking lots. The airport will be used for both civilian and military purposes.

The construction will cost an estimated VND5,903 billion (US$255 million), of which VND3,088 billion (US$133 million) will be sourced from the state.

Items such as the civil aviation area, aviation fuel depot costing about VND1,772 billion (US$76 million) will be built under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) format.

Construction is expected to begin this year and will be completed in 2021.

Sa Pa Airport will become the 23rd airport in Vietnam, 10 of which operate international flights.

The airport is expected to become an impetus to promote socio-economy in Sapa and Lao Cai.

Lao Cai welcomed 4.2 million visitors last year, up 20% from 2017. 720,000 of them were international tourists.