Vietnam Buys A350 and More 787s

[Winglets747]

This sure has been an interesting week for aircraft orders. BA goes A380 and 787, AI announces intent to buy VLA, and now this order. (Many original articles only mention the 787 order as the A350 order was not yet announced.)

Vietnam is the first airline, IIRC, to order both the A350 and 787.

HANOI – Vietnam Airlines split a keenly awaited order for mid-sized passenger jets between Boeing and Airbus on Monday following a battle for market share in one of the world's fastest-growing economies after China.

The unlisted national airline said it had signed a memorandum of understanding to buy 12 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft – a deal which the U.S. planemaker valued at $1.9 billion based on catalogue prices.

Hours later, the airline signed another draft agreement to buy 10 competing Airbus A350-900XWB passenger jets during a visit to Paris by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The Airbus deal, signed in front of reporters at French Prime Minister Francois Fillon's office, also included 20 additional single-aisle A321 jets.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/busi ... eing-.html

[Nonstop2AUH]

Very smart of them to split orders between Airbus and Boeing. As with the Chinese and the Gulf states, it keeps everything politically correct and makes it difficult for either the US or the EU to criticize any of their trade or other policies.