Vinh International Airport in Nghe An Province, north-central Vietnam resumed normal operations from 7:00 am on Tuesday, after its cracked runway underwent repair.

Tran Hoai Phuong, head of the Northern Airports Authority, asked the Vinh airport to inform airlines and relevant agencies of the resumption.

Also, the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation was told to issue notifications of the resumption at home and overseas, while directing its subsidiary, Northern Region Air Traffic Services Company, to control air traffic at the airport with the highest levels of safety.

Hoang Van Thu, director of the Vinh airport, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Tuesday morning that the airport resumed normal operations after its cracked runway underwent 12 hours of repairs.

The cracked section spanned some 40 square meters, but the airport management authority decided to expand the area subject to repair to 1,000 square meters, Thu said.

The repair was done at around 5:50 am on Tuesday, with the first flight on the Hanoi-Vinh route being operated, he said.

The airport reported seven makeup flights operated by local carriers such as Vietnam Airlines, Bamboo Airways, and Vietjet Air on Tuesday morning, according to the airport leader.

Earlier, the Vinh airport was informed by its air traffic controller of the cracked section on runway No. 17 at 9:35 am on Monday, by which time the airport had operated four flights.

Following the incident, the airport was temporarily shut down from 10:50 am on Monday for repair and was scheduled to reopen at 10:50 am the next day.

The preliminary assessment results from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) indicated that high temperatures might cause cracking on the runway.

The runway cracking resulted in cancellations of 21 flights scheduled to depart from or land at the Vinh airport on Monday.

Multiple flights had to divert to Tho Xuan Airport in neighboring Thanh Hoa Province and the travel plans of thousands of affected passengers were disrupted.

A working delegation led by a CAAV deputy head on the same day visited the Vinh airport to examine the incident and direct repair activities.

The national aviation authority also adopted measures to support affected flights and grant permits to unscheduled flights to transport the affected passengers.

According to the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), runways at the Vinh airport were put into service in late 2003 and now require repairs and upgrades after two decades of operations.

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