Vietnam Airlines Inks MOU to Buy 12 B787-82, 30 Airbuses
State-owned Vietnam Airlines (VNA) and Vietnam Aircraft Lease Company (VALC) September 28 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Boeing Co. to buy 12 Boeing 787-8s, VNA announced Monday.
The contract totaled at US$1.9 billion based on catalogue prices, under which the first aircraft will be delivered in 2015.
In 2005, Vietnam Airlines inked deals to buy four Boeing 787-8s and will start running them in 2009 and 2010, just after delivery.
The newly signed contract will bring the airline’s total number of B787-8s to 20 in 2015, and 28 in 2020, VNA said.
The Boeing order was sealed when Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was visiting the United Nations in New York in order to seek for international support for Vietnam’s effort to gain a two-year seat on the UN Security Council in 2008 and 2009.
The airline October 1 also engaged in orders worth US$3.7 billion with Airbus for ten A350-900s which seats 300 people, and 20 single-aisle A321-200s, in the presence of PM Dung and French counterpart Francois Fillon.
The first A350 aircraft under the contract will arrive in Vietnam in 2014 and first A321 will be in 2012.
The national flag carrier said the giant orders will facilitate its plan to put 40 A320s and A321s into operation by 2015, and 50 in 2020.
Vietnam Airlines said its total fleet planes will increase to 86 in 2015 and 110 in 2020.
The airline is contriving to launch a direct flight between HCM City and Los Angeles late next year. It plans to run five flights a week on the route with Boeing B777-200ER.
Currently, it is directly flying seven times a week between France and Vietnam with Boeing B777-200ER. (Vietnam Airlines Press Release)
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