Southernmost Ca Mau province has proposed that the Prime Minister direct the Ministry of Transport (MoT) to soon upgrade Ca Mau Airport.

It also proposed expanding the stretches of National Highway No. 1 and the Ho Chi Minh Highway in the province to help tackle transport overload, attract investment, and boost socio-economic development.

According to the MoT, Ca Mau Airport currently has an annual capacity of 200,000 passengers.

In the 2012-2019 period, prior to Covid-19, it catered to 14 flights a week and about 30,000-38,000 passengers a year.

In 2020, due to the pandemic, it only catered to six flights a week. In the 2021-2025 period, passenger numbers are forecast to increase about 4 per cent a year to 40,000 by 2025.

The plan to upgrade the airport will be based on the master plan for the aviation sector’s development to 2025 and vision to 2030, which has been submitted by the MoT to the Prime Minister for approval.

Following approval, the ministry will immediately map out a plan to upgrade Ca Mau Airport in the 2021-2030 period.

The airport is to have a capacity of welcoming 1 million passengers a year by 2030 and 2 million by 2050, according to the MoT.