The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Vietnamese airline is buying $5.6 billion in Boeing planes
Aerospace giant Boeing has agreed to sell 20 Dreamliner commercial jets to Vietnamese start-up airline Bamboo Airlines in a deal worth up to $5.6 billion, the companies announced Monday, just weeks after the airline struck a similar $3 billion deal with French competitor Airbus.
The new airline is a project of FLC Group, a publicly traded resort developer in Vietnam. FLC executives said they initially want to ferry tourists to their resorts in disparate parts of the country.
But the choice to buy 787 Dreamliners — a wide-body airplane built for long-haul flights — hints at broader ambitions.
FLC c hairman Tr i nh Van Quyet said he wants to expand to 16 domestic routes and 10 international routes, starting with regional flights next year.
“The deal with Boeing today is only the first step for us. We want to have more than 100 planes in the future,” Quyet said.
The deal was celebrated in a signing ceremony at the U.S Chamber of Commerce attended by Voung Dinh Hue, Vietnam's deputy prime minister. After the ceremony the group held an investor conference at Trump International Hotel, where a stream of prepared videos praised FLC's tourist resorts. Vietnam is still an officially socialist country with a largely state-controlled economy, but the government has undertaken reforms in recent years to attract foreign investment and tourism. FLC Group is undertaking sustantial risk by wading into airline business in such spectacular fashion. While star-up airlines are not unheard of, placing such a large order without testing the market first in seen as higly unusual. "To purchase 20 787's indicates a degree of confidence - some would say arrogance - and very deep financial pockets," said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Atmosphere a willingness to ignore basic financial planning for an airline, where you usually buy a few and wait for the markiet to materialize. It's a very bold, very risky move."