On October 21, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh, authorized by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, signed a decision on the investment policy for the Sa Pa airport construction project (Lao Cai). The project will be divided into two investment phases, expected to use 371 hectares of land (phase 1 is 295.2 hectares and phase 2 is 75.8 hectares).
Phase 1, implemented from 2021, includes the construction of Sa Pa airport to meet 4C airport standards (according to the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization - ICAO) and a level II military airport, with a capacity of 1.5 million passengers per year.
Phase 2 construction and investment will start in 2028, and will complete items to increase capacity to 3 million passengers per year.
Projected perspective of Sa Pa airport
According to the Prime Minister's decision, the investment period for construction and exploitation of Sa Pa airport project is 50 years, of which the expected construction period is 4 years and the operation, exploitation and capital recovery period is 46 years.
Because the investment is in the form of public-private partnership (PPP), the entire project will be divided into two component projects, including the site clearance project in the form of public investment and airport construction in the form of PPP, BOT contract type.
The total estimated investment for this project is 6,948 billion VND, of which phase 1 accounts for 60% of the capital (4,183 billion VND); the remaining 40% of the capital is in phase 2, 2,765 billion VND. The State will "contribute" about 2,730 billion VND to this project in the categories of site clearance, resettlement, infrastructure construction support... The remaining 4,218 billion VND will be mobilized by investors.
Previously, according to the approved plan, Sa Pa domestic airport had a capacity of 3 million passengers per year, receiving aircraft equivalent to Airbus A320, Boeing 737. The airport has a 2-level passenger terminal. In the south, there is reserved land to be able to build another passenger terminal after 2030.
By mid-2020, the Lao Cai Provincial People's Committee proposed the Government to consider approving the investment policy for the Sa Pa airport project under the PPP model. The Ministry of Planning and Investment then appraised the pre-feasibility study of this project.
