BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) -Vietnam Airlines will issue requests for proposals to aircraft manufacturers next year to purchase 50 narrow-body jets, its CEO said on Wednesday.
The airline signed a preliminary agreement with Boeing last year for 50 737 MAX aircraft, which has yet to be finalized.
“In Vietnam, we have to go through the bidding process, we have to open up to others… The door is still open to everyone,” Vietnam Airlines CEO Le Hong Ha told Reuters on the sidelines of an Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. in Brunei. “Boeing is an option, they have a very good offer for us.”
Airbus and Boeing are the main global manufacturers of single-aisle aircraft, with Airbus' A320neo family competing with the 737 MAX, although Chinese aircraft manufacturer COMAC is trying to make inroads with its C919.
Vietnam Airlines' current narrowbody fleet consists exclusively of Airbus aircraft, the website showed.
The airline needs 170 new aircraft by 2035, the CEO said.
The requests for proposals leave open the possibility for COMAC to offer the C919. China is increasingly selling its planes to Vietnam.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met a senior COMAC official in China last week who said the Vietnamese market has great potential, Vietnam's state news agency reported.
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Writing by Jamie Freed; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Christopher Cushing)
