Vietjet Expands its Airbus A330neo Order

Vietnamese low cost carrier Vietjet must be feeling very confident about the future and their possibilities of success and expansion. The airline has significantly increased its standing Airbus wide body aircraft order during the recent Vietnamese government state visit in France.

Vietjet Orders More A330neo Planes To Fuel Future Expansion

Vietjet has been, over the past few years, expanding its long haul services reaching further and further. The airline has increased its capacity to strategic markets, such as Australia, which can only be served by using wide body planes. That means occupying more of its wide body aircraft and therefore creating the need to source more of the type.

That is why the carrier, planning for future growth, has signed an deal addendum to the standing order with Airbus for A330neo planes. Prior to this addendum the airline had ordered 20 planes from European manufacturer Airbus. However, the outlook must have changed since then as Vietjet has come back to the negotiating table adding another 20 A330neo to that order. That effectively doubles the original order and becomes a very interesting partnership for Airbus.

The entirety of the order, 40 aircraft, is for the larger and most popular version of the A330neo, that is the A330-900. Deliveries will take place over the next decade, with the airline replacing and expanding its current Airbus A330 fleet.

A Strengthened Partnership in Southeast Asia for Airbus

Speaking of fleet, this deal is also significant as it solidifies the partnership between Vietjet and Airbus. The Vietnamese LCC, operates an all airbus fleet, and will continue to do so. Currently it owns and operates its flights on a fleet of 115 A320 Family planes along with 7 A330-300s.

Those A330-300s are likely to be phased out and replaced by the neo versions, however, the older A320 Family planes might have a similar fate as the airline also has on order 96 A320neo Family planes.