Airbus signs deals for 30 passenger jets with Vietnam Airlin

HANOI — Airbus yesterday signed deals for 30 passenger jets with Vietnam Airlines and an aircraft leasing company, the latest orders in a major shopping spree by the state-run Asian carrier. The European aircraft maker signed contracts, agreed in principle and announced on October 1 in Paris, for ten A350-900XWB aircraft and twenty A321-200s at a ceremony in the capital Hanoi.

The 30 Airbus jets have a total catalogue price of nearly 3.8 billion dollars. The first A321s are due to be delivered by 2012 and the first wide-body, long-haul A350s by 2016, the companies said. The Vietnam Aircraft Leasing Company (VALC), which is co-owned by Vietnam Airlines and a number of state banks and companies in the communist country, bought ten of the A321s, while the airline bought the other 20 jets.

Vietnam Airlines — which says it hopes to become one of Asia's leading carriers alongside Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines — last month signed a deal with US aircraft maker Boeing for twelve 787-8 Dreamliners. The latest deals were signed by Airbus CEO in charge of customer relations John Leahy, Vietnam Airlines CEO Pham Ngoc Minh and VALC CEO Tran Long. "Airbus is proud to be playing a central role in the continued modernisation of the rapidly developing Vietnamese air transport industry," said Leahy.

Air travel is fast growing in the country of 84 million — which has seen tourism and business travel surge amid more than eight per cent economic growth last year — and foreign airlines and budget carriers are flocking to Vietnam. Minh said "demand for air services between Vietnam's major cities and from Vietnam to countries in the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Northeast Asia, Europe and North America regions has significantly increased." Vietnam Airlines, which is set to be part-privatised soon, now has direct flights to 26 major cities in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, and plans to launch direct flights to Los Angeles by late next year.

The carrier now operates 47 aircraft, including ten Boeing 777s, ten Airbus A320, eleven A321 and four A330. It will receive four more A321s next year and four Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners which it ordered several years ago from 2009. For shorter routes, Vietnam Airlines this month also ordered five ATR 72-500 turbo-propeller planes to add to its existing fleet of 10 aircraft from the Toulouse, France-based aircraft maker. Under a modernisation plan, Vietnam Airlines says it expects to expand its fleet to 85 aircraft by 2015 and 110 planes by 2020.

Airbus parent, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), also signed a memorandum of understanding Friday with Vietnam to explore future areas of cooperation in the aerospace industry. Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries last month said it would become the world's first manufacturer to set up an aircraft-related production plant in Vietnam, with a facility due to open next year. The production plant in Hanoi will employ up to about 200 people when production picks up assembling flaps for the Boeing 737, the company said.

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