| Vietnam
signs up for 12 additional 787-8 Dreamliners
17 November 2007
Hanoi:
Vietnam Airlines and Vietnam Aircraft Leasing Company (VALC) have signed deals
for twelve 787-8 Dreamliners with US aircraft maker Boeing to help the state-run
carrier modernise its fleet and meet surging demand for air travel. While
Vietnam Airlines has agreed to buy four of the large passenger jets, the newly
formed Vietnam Aircraft Leasing Company (VALC) will buy eight of the twin-aisle
aircraft to lease out to the airline. Deliveries to VALC will be made from 2016
onward VALC said
its eight planes would cost a combined $1.4 billion, putting the total price tag
for the 12 aircraft at about $2.1 billion.
The first of four 787s
ordered under a previous deal are due for delivery by late 2009. Vietnam
Airlines plans to operate a total of 20 Dreamliners by 2015, and 28 by 2020, the
airline said in a statement. "The
787 Dreamliner will enable Vietnam Airlines to better match airplane capabilities
with market expectations and demands as the airline expands ...to include North
America and new European and Asian destinations," said Michael Fleming, Boeing's
senior sales director for the Asia Pacific region. Communist-ruled
Vietnam has also agreed to buy 10 Airbus A350-900XWBs and 20 A321s in a deal that
ought to be finalised before December 21. Meanwhile,
air travel is taking off in this country of 84 million, which has seen tourism
and business travel surge on the back of over 8 per cent annual economic growth
last year. The
economic growth has spurred foreign airlines and budget carriers to make Vietnam
their destination in increasingly large numbers. The
aviation sector is now growing at 11.7 per cent a year, according to a government
statement.
By 2020, the aviation sector aims to expand by up to 14 per
cent annually, when the country hopes to be among Southeast Asia's three leading
air transport providers, with a maximum of 10 aviation companies, the statement
said. Vietnam
Airlines, which will privatise partly, now operates direct flights to 26 large
cities in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, and plans to launch direct flights
to Los Angeles by late next year. Pham
Ngoc Minh, chairman of VALC, said that, with the Vietnamese aviation sector growing
fast, "we will seek more planes for the development of the Vietnam aviation
sector in general and of Vietnam Airlines in particular." "Vietnam
Airlines now owns 46 aircraft and they are not enough at the present stage,"
he said. Vietnam Airlines plans to operate a fleet of 86 aircraft by 2015, and
a total of 110 planes by 2020. Vietnam
Airlines, Vinashin Business Group, the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, the
Bank of Investment and Development of Vietnam and the Phong Phu Corporation run
VALC, which was officially launched this week.  The
leasing company plans to buy and lease aircraft and offer on-demand air transport,
terminal operation and aircraft maintenance and insurance services.
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