| Cat Bi International Airport | |
| Nativename: | Vietnamese: Sân bay Quốc tế Cát Bi |
| Iata: | HPH |
| Icao: | VVCI |
| Type: | Public |
| Operator: | Northern Airports Services Company |
| City-Served: | Hai Phong & Ha Long |
| Location: | Hai Phong, Vietnam |
| Elevation-M: | 4 |
| Pushpin Map: | Vietnam |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of airport in Vietnam |
| Pushpin Label: | HPH/VVCI |
| Pushpin Label Position: | right |
| Metric-Elev: | y |
| Metric-Rwy: | y |
| R1-Number: | 07/25 |
| R1-Length-M: | 3050 |
| R1-Surface: | Asphalt |
| Stat1-Header: | Total passenger |
| Stat1-Data: | 2,737,700 |
| Stat-Year: | 2018 |
| Stat2-Header: | Aircraft movements |
| Stat2-Data: | 14,374 |
| Stat3-Header: | Airfreight (tonne) |
| Stat3-Data: | 17,128 |
| Footnotes: | Hai Phong Portal[1] |
Cat Bi International Airport is located in Hai Phong, Vietnam.
During the war Cat Bi Air Base was used by French Air Force (French: Armée de l'air), units based there included:
The base was also used by French Naval Aviation (French: Aéronavale), units based there included:
On 14 November 1953 the United States Air Force 483d Troop Carrier Wing flew five C–119s from Clark Air Base to Cat Bi to qualify French Air Force crews on them.[3] In December 1953 in order to support C–119s, the USAF deployed to Cat Bi detachments of the 483d Troop Carrier Wing, the 8081st Aerial Resupply Unit and a provisional maintenance squadron of the Far East Air Logistics Force in what was known as Operation Cat Paw which had a peak strength in April 1954 of 121 men.[3]
On the night of 6/7 March 1954 the Viet Minh attacked the base destroying 1 B-26 and 6 Morane-Saulnier MS.500 Criquets.[4]
On 9 March 1954 civilian pilots from the CIA-backed Civil Air Transport (CAT) arrived at Cat Bi to begin flying C-119s, they began flying cargo missions on 12 March.[3] Cat Bi-based CAT aircraft flew a total of 682 missions in support of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu between 13 March and 6 May 1954.[5]
On 22 May 1954 the 483d Troop Carrier Wing maintenance detachment at Cat Bi relocated to Tourane Air Base.[3]
During the war the base was used by the Vietnam People's Air Force. On 9 January and 10 February 1968 United States jets attacked the base.[6]
On 26 August 1972 during Operation Linebacker U.S. Navy jets bombed the base.[7]
In early 1973 U.S. C-130 aircraft flew into Cat Bi to deliver minesweeping equipment as part of Operation End Sweep.[8]
Vietnam has announced a new master plan to upgrade the airport with a 3,050-meter second runway, a new terminal, and a new apron by 2015. The existing runway will also be upgraded. After the expansion, the airport will be capable of serving up to 4–5 million passengers a year.[9] The first phase of the project was completed in May 2016, enabling this airport a capacity of 2 million passengers per year.
The new terminal and new runway were opened on 12 May 2016. The airport can serve the Boeing 767, Airbus A350 XWB and similar aircraft.