Vietnam’s first private airport near the world-renowned Ha Long Bay is getting finishing touches for a Christmas day opening. The 325-hectare (803 acres) airport at Van Don District, northern Quang Ninh Province cost VND7.7 trillion (more than $330 million) and can handle 2.5 million passengers a year and 1,250 per hour.
It is expected to focus on services to Northeast Asian destinations such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China and also Southeast Asian ones like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia.
Domestically, flights will mostly be to southern and central regions.
Dinh Viet Thang, head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), said the airport could handle the largest of aircraft.
Construction had begun in 2015.
Real estate conglomerate Sun Group, who owns it, is completing licensing procedures now so that the first flight can land on December 25.
It now has gates for four aircraft and the number will be increased to seven by 2030.
According to the CAAV, the private airport will have to follow all regulations in terms of aviation safety and security like all other airports in the country.
Airlines served almost 80 million passengers in the country in the first nine months of this year, up 12.1 percent from a year ago.
The number is expected to cross 100 million for the very first time this year.