Budget line VietJet takes receipt of new Airbus A320
(VOV) - Low-cost airline VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co has taken receipt of the first of 30 Airbus Group SE A321 planes it ordered at last month’s Dubai Airshow, a deal worth US$3.6 billion at full retail prices.
The original deal was for nine A321ceo and 21 A321neo aircraft, Hanoi-based VietJet said in a release posted on its website announcing the deal.
“VietJet has grown faster than expected in the last few years and our previous purchasing plans for new aircraft could not keep up with developing demand," VietJet President and CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said in the release.
Vietnam’s only privately owned carrier is seeking to expand in a market that grew 20% from a year earlier in the first half of 2015. VietJet initially took out options on the planes at the 2014 Singapore Airshow, part of a contract it signed for 100 aircraft.
VietJet flies 35 routes in Southeast Asia and to China, using 29 Airbus planes. The new planes will be used to expand the carrier’s destinations in Asia, including to the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Japan, Thao said.
The planes will be delivered between 2015 and 2020, with financing provided by leading banks and lessors including GE Capital Aviation Services Inc. and Avolon Holdings Ltd., Thao said last month at a Dubai news conference.