VietJetAir's much delayed B737 MAX jets are now expected to begin arriving in 2024 with deliveries running through to 2028. In May 2022, the airline rebooted the dormant order that dates from 2016, confirming that they would take 200 of the planes in an aircraft and MRO agreement worth USD35 billion.
In 2016, in what was Viet Nam's largest ever commercial aircraft purchase, VietJetAir ordered 100 B737-10s with deliveries to occur between 2019 and 2023. VietJet doubled down in February 2019 with orders for 100 more, including another eighty MAX 10s and twenty B737-8 aircraft. However, the global MAX grounding and subsequent Covid-19 outbreak saw deliveries indefinitely paused. Meanwhile, VietJetAir began ordering narrowbody Airbus aircraft.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the LCC is currently contracted to take 106 B737-10s, sixty-six B737-8s, and twenty-eight B737-8-200s from Boeing (BOE, Washington National).
The deal was revived in late May when Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited Washington D.C. The following month, at the Farnborough Air Show, Boeing and VietJet made a joint announcement confirming the order was active once again.
Presenting the airline's H1 2022 results in Hanoi this week, VietJetAir said that it and Boeing had reached an agreement on a revised delivery schedule to accommodate VietJetAir's recovery from and growth after the pandemic, with deliveries for the 200 aircraft now occurring between 2024 and 2028. The first fifty MAX planes will go to subsidiary Thai VietJetAir (VZ, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi).
"(The) new agreement provides more flexibility for aircraft deliveries and commercial incentives for parties in taking new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft," the airline's briefing notes said.
VietJetAir, which now holds the largest market share in Viet Nam, is currently flying 52 domestic and 106 international routes. According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the airline operates 77 aircraft including eighteen A320-200s; thirty-eight A321-200s; twelve A320-200Ns; seven A321-200NXs; and two A330-300s.
Notably, the first MAX arrivals will signal the end of the all-Airbus VietJetAir fleet. However, according to the latest Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) order data, the airline has 119 A321-200neo still to be delivered.
