BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) – Vietnam Airlines will launch tenders from aircraft manufacturers for 50 narrow-body planes next year, its CEO said on Wednesday.
The carrier signed a tentative deal with Boeing for 50 737 MAX planes last year that has not yet been finalized.
“In Vietnam, we have to go through the tender process, we have to open up to others… The door is always open to everyone,” Le Hong Ha, CEO of Vietnam Airlines, told Reuters on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Airlines Association event. in Brunei. “Boeing is an option, they have a very good offer for us.”
Airbus and Boeing are the world’s leading manufacturers of single-aisle aircraft, with Airbus’ A320neo family competing with the 737 MAX, although Chinese manufacturer COMAC is trying to break through with its C919.
Vietnam Airlines’ current narrow-body fleet consists only of Airbus aircraft, its website said.
The airline will need 170 new planes by 2035, its CEO said.
The calls for tenders leave open the possibility of COMAC offering the C919. China is increasingly marketing its planes to Vietnam.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met last week with a senior COMAC official in China who said the Vietnamese market has strong potential, the Vietnam National News Agency reported.
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington; writing by Jamie Freed; editing by Shri Navaratnam and Christopher Cushing)
