HANOI, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines plans to reduce state ownership to 51 percent of its charter capital in the next three years.

Vietnam Airlines will increase its charter capital to 14 trillion Vietnamese dong (619 million U.S. dollars) by issuing additional shares, and sell stakes to outsiders in 2018, when state ownership will decrease by 4.1 percent to 82.1 percent of the capital, Vietnam News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Vietnam Airlines will continue to sell stakes after 2018, so that the ratio of state capital in the carrier will eventually drop to 51 percent.

According to Vietnam Airlines General Director Duong Tri Thanh, after the charter capital hike is completed in the first phase, the firm will move its listing from the Hanoi Stock Exchange to Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange in the second quarter of 2018.

Vietnam Airlines currently has charter capital of nearly 12.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (some 543 million U.S. dollars), of which the state holds over 1 billion shares, equivalent to 86 percent of the charter capital.

Vietnam's aviation sector served 41.6 million passengers in the first 11 months of this year, up 13.8 percent year-on-year, said the General Statistics Office. Meanwhile, the sector transported 289,800 tons of cargoes, up 7.8 percent.