VietNamNet Bridge - The contract worth $11.3 billion signed between Vietjet Air, Vietnam’s only private airline, and Boeing, the US aircraft manufacturer, has caught the special attention of  the media around the world.

 

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of Vietjet, and Ray Conner, CEO of Boeing, signed an important contract with the witness of Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang and US President Obama on May 23.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of Vietjet, and Ray Conner, CEO of Boeing, signed an important contract with the witness of Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang and US President Obama on May 23.

With value of $11.3 billion, this is believed to be the biggest contract ever signed in Vietnam-US history.

The contract is important to both Vietjet and Boeing. As for the Vietnamese private air carrier, the deal will add diversity to a fleet of Airbus airplanes.  

The air carrier, though being very young, plans to obtain growth rate of 10 percent this year and an increase in revenue and profit of 70 percent.

As for Boeing, a representative of the US aircraft manufacturer, said that Vietjet’s order would affect Boeing’s strategy, and that the Vietnamese LCC market would be an important market in the region in the future.

With value of $11.3 billion, this is believed to be the biggest contract ever signed in Vietnam-US history.

About the contract, the Washington Post commented that Boeing has dealt a blow to its rival Airbus in the hot Asia market.

"That’s a decent surprise,” said George Ferguson, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence on the newspaper. “You never want to lose a customer, but that region is full of low-cost airlines. So there’s going to be a battle for who takes this market, and Airbus is not out of it.”

Meanwhile, The News & Observer wrote: “Boeing gains an edge over Airbus with deal to sell 100 planes to Vietnam.”

A question has been raised about how Vietjet, a new emerging airline with just several domestic air routes flying to several South East Asian countries, arranged money for such a big deal.

Dinesh Keskar, the US company’s senior vice president of sales for Asia-Pacific and India, in an interview to VnExpress, said he thinks Vietjet won’t meet any problems with the order.

Under the contract, Boeing will deliver the aircraft within 4-5 years, commencing from 2019, when the situation will be much different from now. 

Boeing also signed similar contracts with some other airlines in the world, including Lion Air in Indonesia and some others in India, and everything went smoothly.

Bizlive cited the news on Business Insider as reporting that it is highly possible that Vietjet may enjoy a 50 percent discount rate with the deal.

CNBC has interviewed Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of Vietjet, describing her a ‘petite woman with a tendency to smile sweetly as she answers questions in a soft voice, but she is not a pushover’.


CV