Vietnam Airlines aims to raise additional funds through a share listing to support growth as tourism to the country booms.
Shares are due to be listed on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange in the first quarter of 2019.
This will raise the state-owned carrier’s profile and position it to fund development of its fleet as it faces growing competition from low-cost carriers, the Financial Times reported.
Chief executive Duong Tri Thanh said: “Vietnam Airlines will go public in the first quarter of next year.
“We are making our target the first quarter of next year, and I think this is feasible.”
Thanh said that “the airline and the management want to do this”, but added that the final decision would be made by the Vietnamese government.
The airline would become one of the largest listed companies on the exchange at a time when foreign funds are looking for ways to invest in Vietnam’s fast-growing economy, including its rapidly expanding local and international tourism market.
The carrier’s’s shares already trade on Hanoi’s unlisted public company market for unlisted companies at a price that values the company at more than $2 billion.
The Vietnamese state currently controls about 86% of the airline and said it would reduce this to 51% by 2020, in a move that would free up more shares for private investors.
ANA Holdings, owner of Japan’s All Nippon Airways, bought an 8.8% stake in Vietnam Airlines for $108 million and agreed a code-share partnership in 2016.