The low-cost airline VietJetAir intends to expand its fleet. To this end, they looked around the People's Republic of China and concluded a preliminary agreement with Comac that should lead to the introduction of the ARJ21 machine into the fleet.
The Vietnam-based aviation company will lease an unspecified number of Comac ARJ21s. Contrary to initial reports from this region, these will not be purchased, but rather leased through a Chinese lessor. There was also previous talk that VietJetAir could be in negotiations about the Comac C919 aircraft. This would be significant because VietJetAir could become the first operator outside the People's Republic of China.
However, it is currently still completely unclear whether the Vietnamese aviation company will also choose the C919. The only thing that is currently certain is that an as yet unspecified number of ARJ21s will be leased. Indonesia-based Transnusa Airline was the first operator of this type of aircraft outside the People's Republic of China.
The ARJ21 is based on license production from the McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 series, but was fundamentally further developed under Chinese direction. Other than minor visual similarities, the ARJ21 has little in common with the MD-80 series. The C919 is a medium-haul jet that was completely newly developed in the People's Republic of China.
While Comac was able to land a lot of orders within the country and recently claimed that it already has over 919 orders for the C1.000 alone, it has had little success on the international market. So far, many airlines and airlines have been reluctant to order the ARJ21 or C919 models developed and produced in China. In this respect, the fact that VietJetAir has decided to lease ARJ21 and could possibly also order C191 later has a certain prestige for Comac.
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