Vietnam Airlines has said it will acquire 12 additional 787-8s following an earlier order for four 787-8s. Citing Chairman and CEO Nguyen Sy Hung, Vietnamese daily Thanh Nien reported that the airline signed an MOU for the direct purchase of four 787-8s and increase the purchase by Vietnam Aircraft Leasing of an additional eight for delivery in 2015-17. The carriers’ first 787 will take to the sky in 2009.
Nguyen told the newspaper that the carrier plans to operate 86 aircraft by 2015 and 110 by 2020. “Most of them are next-generation aircraft,” he said, adding that Vietnam Airlines’ plans for still larger planes are on hold as the 747“is an aircraft using out-of-date technologies”and the A380 “is too big.”