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This Southeast Asian Airline to Sign Major Boeing Deal during Trump-Kim Summit

This Southeast Asian Airline to Sign Major Boeing Deal during Trump-Kim Summit
www.vietjetair.com

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will hold their second summit in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Feb 27-28. 

Holding a signing ceremony during Trump’s visit would help emphasize strengthening economic and military ties between the United States and Vietnam.

VietJet, while not government-owned, increasingly uses state visits to showcase major plane orders balanced between Boeing and Airbus SE. It signed a deal to buy 100 Boeing 737 MAX narrowbody jets when former U.S. President Barack Obama visited Hanoi in 2016. 

The airline is likely to finalize next week a separate provisional deal agreed last year at the Farnborough Airshow to buy another 100 Boeing 737 MAX jets worth almost $13 billion at list prices, sources said on condition of anonymity due to an expected announcement by VietJet. 

Budget airline Vietjet's fleet includes 60 Airbus A320 and A321 craft. Image: Nikkei Asian Review
Budget airline Vietjet's fleet includes 60 Airbus A320 and A321 craft. Image: Nikkei Asian Review

 

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration declared last week that Vietnam complied with international aviation standards, in a move that would allow Vietnamese carriers to fly there for the first time and codeshare with U.S. airlines. 

VietJet said last week it planned to purchase widebody jets capable of U.S. flights to open routes to cities with large Vietnamese communities in the United States, such as in California. 

Another source briefed on the matter said the deal for 100 737 MAX jets was already on Boeing’s books, having been firmed up earlier and listed as an unidentified customer. 

Boeing declined to comment. VietJet did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

VietJet operates 385 flights daily within Vietnam and to places such as Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia.

 


Source : Reuters | CNBC

Indah Gilang Pusparani

Indah is a researcher at Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Daerah Kota Cirebon (Regional Development Planning and Research Agency of Cirebon Municipality). She covers More international relations, tourism, and startups in Southeast Asia region and beyond. Indah graduated from MSc Development Administration and Planning from University College London, United Kingdom in 2015. She finished bachelor degree from International Relations from University of Indonesia in 2014, with two exchange programs in Political Science at National University of Singapore and New Media in Journalism at Ball State University, USA. She was awarded Diplomacy Award at Harvard World Model United Nations and named as Indonesian Gifted Researcher by Australian National University. She is Researcher at Regional Planning Board in Cirebon, West Java. She previously worked as Editor in Bening Communication, the Commonwealth Parliament Association UK, and diplomacy consulting firm Best Delegate LLC in USA. Less
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