Vietnam leases A320 jets

Vietnam leases A320 jets

HANOI (AFP): Vietnam Airlines has just taken delivery of the first of a new fleet of 10 Airbus A320s under a leasing agreement, Airbus Industrie announced.

Under the agreement concluded with Aerostar Leasing, the Vietnamese carrier is to take delivery of a total of 10 A-320s manufactured by the European constructor by the beginning of 1997, Airbus Industrie said.

The airplanes will be replacing seven A320s that Vietnam Airlines had leased through the French carrier Air France under an agreement signed at the end of 1993 and which expired last month, a spokesman for Vietnam Airlines said Saturday.

The new fleet of A320s will be used on both domestic and international routes.

Vietnam Airlines' fleet, which includes two Airbus A320s, two A300-B4s, six Boeing 767s and a dozen Russian-made Tupolevs, is in urgent need of modernization as traffic increases rapidly.