Vietnamese UK and VietJet officials celebrating VietJets Airbus A321neo order
VietJet has firmed up orders for 100 Airbus A321neo aircraft, following the airline’s signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the Paris Air Show in June 2025.
On October 30, 2025, Airbus announced that VietJet, a Vietnam-based low-cost carrier, firmed up an order for 100 A321neo aircraft, taking its total orders for the type to 280. Currently, the Vietnamese airline has 36 A321neo aircraft in its fleet, eight of which are parked, according to planespotters.net.
The two companies signed the MoU preceding the order for 100 A321neos and 50 options during the Paris Air Show on June 17.
Nguyen Thi Phoung Thao, the Chairwoman of VietJet, said that firming up the order symbolized “trust, aspiration, and a shared vision for sustainable development and global connectivity.”
Meanwhile, VietJet’s statement noted that the order-signing ceremony took place in the United Kingdom and was attended by Vietnamese and British officials, with celebrations continuing at the Vietnam-UK High-Level Economic Conference.
The 100 A321neo aircraft will not only complement its current and incoming A321neo fleet, but also its A330-900s, of which it has 40. The Vietnamese airline signed an MoU for an initial 20 A330-900 aircraft in February 2024, finalized the order at the Farnborough International Airshow in July 2024, and added another 20 A330-900s on top of that in May 2025.
When the airline announced the latter order, it said the signing ceremony was attended not only by Thao and Wouter van Wersch, the President of Airbus International, but also by the Presidents of France and Vietnam: Emmanuel Macron and Luong Cuong.
At the time, Thao emphasized that VietJet’s investment in a modern fleet also reflected its “commitment to strengthening economic and technological ties between Vietnam and France.”
One of its A321neo aircraft, registered as VN-A539, has a special ‘50th Anniversary of Vietnam-France Diplomatic Relations’ sticker, which the airline unveiled in October 2024 at Paris Orly Airport (ORY). It also had an A321ceo, registered as VN-A657, with a sticker celebrating the 45th anniversary of French-Vietnamese diplomatic relations, in place until December 2021.
Old debts could have stopped the deals. In May, following VietJet’s failure to pay leases for four A321 aircraft, two A321ceo and A321neo, the UK’s Court of Appeal ruled that the Vietnamese airline must cover the early termination lease penalty of $181 million, as well as unpaid leases of around $8 million.
VietJet appealed the decision before the UK Supreme Court, and the case is ongoing. According to the Vietnamese carrier’s H1 2025 financial report, it had VND 7.1 trillion ($269.6 million) of cash and cash equivalents at the end of the fiscal period.
Since May, it has taken delivery of only a single aircraft, a second-hand A330-300, registered as VN-A820.
On September 21, VietJet announced that it was finally taking delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, with Thao reflecting that the first 737 MAX 8 “received under this historic order is the result of nearly a decade of partnership between Boeing and Vietjet.”
“It marks the start of hundreds more deliveries in the years ahead. This milestone strengthens bilateral trade, symbolizes the U.S.–Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and reflects our shared ambition to reach new heights in aviation.”
However, Boeing’s order and deliveries filings and planespotters.net records showed that more than a month after the announcement, VietJet still does not have a single 737 MAX in its fleet.
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