Dien Bien Phu Airport guide

Dien Bien Phu Airport (ICAO VVDB) is the only commercial airport in Vietnam's northwest highlands. It sits close to the city of Dien Bien Phu, in the valley where the 1954 battle that ended French rule in Indochina was fought. The French built the field that year as Muong Thanh airfield to supply their garrison. Scheduled flights began in 1958, and Hanoi services resumed in 1984 with Antonov An-24 aircraft.

Airports Corporation of Vietnam runs the airport. The terminal opened in 2004 with a capacity of 300,000 passengers a year. The airport closed on 1 April 2023 for a six-month expansion costing about VND 1.467 trillion, and it reopened on 2 December 2023. The single concrete runway, 17/35, now measures 2,400 m by 45 m. It replaced a 1,830 m strip that took only ATR 72 turboprops, and the airport now handles Airbus A320 and A321 jets.

Vietnam Airlines flies to Hanoi and Vietjet Air flies to Ho Chi Minh City. From reopening to 31 March 2024 the airport handled 906 flights and nearly 70,000 passengers. Traffic peaked around the 70th anniversary of the battle in May 2024, when daily passenger numbers reached close to 1,000.