tl;dr – Interesting moves from Vietjet to say the least.
Some rather wild news out of Vietnam.
Low-cost carrier Vietjet just accepted delivery of a Boeing 737-8, the first aircraft from its $32 billion, 200-jet order with the Seattle-based airplane maker.
This is notable as it’s the first non-Airbus plane in the Vietjet fleet.
Vietjet Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao – who is also the Southeast Asian country’s richest woman – was in Seattle to attend the ceremony. She later made an interesting stop in New York.
Here are her remarks while visiting the New York Stock Exchange:
“We will soon fly to the U.S., and we are also very excited to explore opportunities to raise capital in New York – the world’s largest stock exchange.”
Wow.
So first things first. It isn’t fully clear what type of aircraft the other 199 Boeing planes are, but I’m guessing most, if not all, are also 737-8s destined for regional service within Asia, as the distance between Vietnam and the US exceeds those aircraft’s range.
This is supported by both some napkin math from the order price and the fact that, earlier this year, Vietjet placed a separate order with Airbus for 20 A330neo, to fuel its expansion plans. (Vietjet currently flies its A330S to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane from both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.)
Secondly, a US IPO is a big move as well. It makes a ton of sense to stockpile capital to help fuel the carrier’s desired growth. Still, it is unexpected coming from a budget carrier. But I guess that is the point. Clearly, Vietjet doesn’t look at itself as just a budget carrier anymore, and perhaps if it nails its ambitious plans, many of us won’t either.
As far as target cities for its first US routes?
Los Angeles (LAX) comes to mind as a catchall for the greater Southern California area.
A sleeper – San Jose’s Mineta airport. San Jose boast about the same population of Vietnamese Americans (admittedly based upon the 2016 census data) as many of the Southern California clusters combined. Additionally, as it’s a prominent Bay Area airport, there’s hope that folks outside of the South Bay would be willing to travel to/fro San Jose just to fly out/in.
Houston is another interesting spot, though I’d imagine that’s a bit ambitious for an inaugural route.
What are your thoughts on this one?
