The construction process will last in 30 months, four monthsfewer than the initial plan.
The project to expand the Dien Bien Airport in the northwesternprovince of Dien Bien was approved on March 27 with the aim of increasing itscapacity to 500,000 passengers per year.
The ACV is the investor ofthe project which is estimated to cost 1,547 billion VND (67 million USD).
The airport will be upgraded to receive large aircraft suchas Airbus A320s and A321s and those with equivalent sizes.
The Dien Bien Airport, 500 kilometers to the west of Hanoi,is the largest and the only commercial airport in the northwestern region ofVietnam.
It was originally a military airport built in 1954. It begancommercial operations in 1994. It has one 1,830-meter runway that can handleshort-haul ATR72 and smaller aircraft. Its current capacity is 300,000passengers per year./.