A US$13 million (Yuan 90 million) proposal to expand Hefei Luogang airport has been submitted for approval to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

The airport, which was originally built in the 1970s, has been renovated and expanded several times, and currently has a 13,600m² terminal, a 65,000m² apron with nine parking positions and two boarding bridges. The design capacity is for 1.8 million passengers per year, but in 2007, the number of passengers exceeded 2.23 million.

A new airport on Hefei is planned, but will not begin operating until 2011, by which time passenger volumes at the present airport are projected to reach 3.9 million.

So this time's expansion project is just a transitional project, according to the airport authority. The expansion project will add a 6,300m² domestic terminal and renovate 2,000m² of the existing terminal, and add one boarding bridge, expand the apron by 36,987m² and addeight more parking positions.