Lao Cai province seeks Sapa airport investors

Lao Cai province authorities are seeking investors for the $158 million Sapa airport project in northwestern Vietnam.

The local administration recently approved a feasibility study for this project’s phase 1, which would be invested in the form of public private partnership (PPP).

Sa Pa, a mountainous resort town in the Hoang Lien Son mountain range, is one of northern Vietnam's top tourist attractions all year round.

The airport is being designed to meet the increased demand for air travel, help boost local socio-economic development, and support search and rescue work in the northwestern region.

The 295-hectare airport, located in Cam Con commune, Bao Yen district, will feature a 2,400-meter-long and 45-meter-wide runway to handle mid-sized aircraft like the Airbus A320 and A321.

The project also includes constructing a 298.5-meter-long and 23-meter-wide taxiway, the airport apron to serve six mid-sized aircraft, and a 43.1-meter-high air traffic control station.

Passenger terminal 1 will be developed over 12,161 square meters to serve 1.5 million passengers per year, and 600 passengers per peak hour.

Once these developments are completed, Sapa airport would become a domestic airport at level 4C, under the standard code of the International Civil Aviation Organization, and a grade II military airport.

Total construction time is around four years. Of the total investment of VND3,651 billion, VND2,990 billion ($129 million) will be mobilized from private investors, and the remainder from the state budget.

The competent authority of the project is Lao Cai People's Committee, while the provincial Department of Transport and Construction acts as contracting agency and bid solicitor.

Investors will be selected through extensive bidding without prequalification, starting from the second quarter of this year.

Once the first phase completes, the second phase will commence after 2028 on an area of 75.8 hectares to complete the construction items needed to enhance the airport's capacity to 3 million passengers per year.

The finished project will mark a significant leap in the development of transport infrastructure in the province, as well as the northern midlands and mountainous areas.