Bamboo Airways, Vietnam's newest airline, is planning to order 10 planes from the American aircraft maker, Boeing. It was said that the company will purchase the 787 Dreamliners model and the deal is expected to be signed during US President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un's visit in Hanoi for a summit.
According to Reuters, Bamboo Airways which is owned by FLC group, a property and leisure company, made its maiden flights in January and at that time, the company already ordered 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners worth $5.6 billion. The carrier wants an additional 10 jets as it prepares to make flights to Europe and US, available to their customers.
"We will sign with Boeing a deal to buy 10 more Boeing 787s," the executive who does not want to be identified told Reuters. "This is different from the deal signed earlier for 20 Boeing planes."
He added, "That means we will have ordered 30 Boeing 787s. The deal will be signed during the summit and this is a firm order valued at nearly $3 billion."
Once the purchase is approved, Bamboo Airways' fleet of aircraft will expand to 55, Fortune reported. This is because, aside from the 30 Boeing 787s, the carrier also signed a deal to purchase 24 Airbus SE A321neo airplanes that cost $3.2 billion.
At any rate, Bamboo Airways' goal of offering flights to the U.S. is underway after the Federal Aviation Administration affirmed that the Vietnamese carrier's operations conform with international aviation standards. This declaration effectively gave the go signal for the airline to fly to the U.S.
It was learned that the plan to fly to Europe and the U.S. is actually part of Bamboo Airways' original goal. When the airline announced its first 20 orders of Boeings,
Trinh Van Quyet, head of Bamboo Airways and CEO of the FLC Group said, "Our long-term vision is to connect Vietnam to key markets within Asia, Europe, and North America, and the capabilities of these new state-of-the-art Dreamliners will help us achieve our goals."
Meanwhile, Vietjet, another Vietnamese carrier, is also buying Boeings and like the Bamboo Airways, it is looking forward to signing the deal during the Donald Trump - Kim Jong Un summit. For this budget airline, it opted to purchase 100 units of the smaller types called the 737 MAX jets. The total cost of the planes is reportedly $13 billion.
