Vietnam is investing nearly 897.7 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 56.5 million U.S. dollars) to upgrade a domestic airport in southern Can Tho city into an international one, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Thursday.

The upgrade of a 2.4-km runway of the Can Tho Airport, which will be capable of serving Boeing 747s, is scheduled to be complete next December. The upgrade of the existing terminal will begin next February and finish in 2009.

The future international airport is expected to serve 2 million passengers each year. Vietnam now has three international airports.

Vietnam's aviation sector transported over 6.1 million passengers and 100,800 tons of cargoes in the first 10 months of this year, up 12.8 percent and 13.4 percent, respectively, against the same period last year, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Source: Xinhua