Vietnam\u2019s Ministry of Construction revised the national airport development plan via Decision 1140\/QD-BXD, formally incorporating a second international airport for the Hanoi capital region. The envisioned scale is large\u201430 to 50 million passengers a year\u2014located in Ung Hoa and Chuong My districts, roughly 40 km south of central Hanoi. Noi Bai International Airport, Hanoi\u2019s air gateway, suffers chronic congestion beyond its design capacity, and this plan will serve as its relief. For residents, business travelers, and tourists entering Hanoi from Japan, it bears directly on future flight numbers and connection options. How access to Noi Bai itself will change isHanoi's simultaneous groundbreaking on five metro lines set to change airport access<\/a>Seen together with this, the full picture comes into view. That said, note first that this is a decision at the planning stage.<\/p>\n With this decision, Hanoi's second airport is positioned as an international airport within the revised national airport development plan. With the Ministry of Construction's approval of Decision 1140\/QD-BXD, the capital region's second airport \u2014 until now discussed only at the conception and draft level \u2014 has become part of the country's formal plan.<\/p>\n The revised plan itself envisions developing 36 airports nationwide by 2030 (19 international, 17 domestic), handling about 249 million passengers and 4.4 million tons of cargo a year. By 2050 this is expected to grow to 37 airports (20 international, 17 domestic). Hanoi\u2019s second airport was written in as one corner of this national network.<\/p>\n Behind it is chronic congestion at Noi Bai International Airport. Noi Bai's design capacity is 25 million passengers a year, but in 2023 it handled over 30 million\u201420% above the design figure. Both passengers and cargo have exceeded capacity almost every year since 2017.<\/p>\n As a countermeasure, the expansion of Terminal 2 (T2) has advanced, widening total floor space to over 200,000 square meters and raising capacity from 10 million to 15 million passengers a year, and up to 18 million at most. Check-in counters and self bag-drop went into operation in December 2025. Even so, it hasn't kept up with rising demand in the capital region, and the need to prepare another airport has emerged.<\/p>\n This plan does not abolish and replace Noi Bai. Noi Bai itself will add land on its south side to expand capacity to about 50 million passengers, with the second airport added on top\u2014a \u201ctwo-airport system\u201d is envisioned. The key figures follow.<\/p>\nWhat Was Decided: The \"Added to the Plan\" Stage<\/h2>\n
Why now\u2014Noi Bai is long past its design capacity<\/h2>\n
The second airport and Noi Bai's division of roles, by the numbers<\/h2>\n