Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJet Air has inked a deal with Boeing Commercial Airplanes to place an order for 100 B737 MAX aircraft worth a total of US$12.7 billion at list prices.
The agreement was signed between Vietjet CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao and Kevin McAllister, president & CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, on the sidelines of the Farnborough Airshow in southern England. Of the package, 80 are the recently launched 737 MAX 10, the largest version of Boeing’s best-selling 737 range, and 20 are the benchmark 737 MAX 8 model, Reuters reported.
The jets will be delivered to Vietnam’s largest airline by market share between 2022 and 2025.
Vietjet’s new order will go toward serving the carrier’s development of airline alliances across the Asia Pacific region and worldwide, and further enhance the airline’s fleet synchronization, modernization and fuel efficiency up to 2025, the carrier said in a press release.
The deal is also expected to increase bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and the United States, it added.
In May 2016, on the occasion on a visit by then-U.S. President Barack Obama to Vietnam, VietJet signed an agreement with Boeing to place an order for 100 737 MAX 200 jets totaling US$11.3 billion at list prices.
In 2014, the carrier reached a deal with Airbus, Boeing’s rival, to buy and lease 100 A320 and A321 airplanes for US$9.1 billion.
If the planes are delivered as planned, VietJet will have a fleet of more than 300 airplanes by 2025, the largest among Vietnamese carriers.
Currently, the airline operates a fleet of 60 aircraft, including A320s and A321s, and more than 385 flights a day. It is now running a network of 93 routes in Vietnam and across the region including Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong (China), Mainland China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Cambodia.