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.