Vietnamese budget carrier VietJet Air has agreed to lease as many as 10 Chinese-made C909 regional passenger jets, giving a lift to their manufacturer’s goal of vying with Airbus and Boeing in overseas civil aviation.
VietJet said in a statement on Thursday night it had agreed with SPDB Financial Leasing, a subsidiary of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank in China, to finance the aircraft through operating leases. Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) makes the jets that are the subject of the deal, which followed talks between the Chinese and Vietnamese presidents in Beijing on Wednesday.
The Shanghai-based planemaker released the C909, previously called the ARJ21, in 2002. It can fit 78 to 97 seats and handle flights of 2,225km to 3,700km (1,380 to 2,300 miles). As of July, Comac had delivered 166 of the jets, which had carried about 24 million passengers on more than 700 routes.
