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Bamboo Airways can grow to 30 aircraft by 2023
August 23rd 2019
Concerns of fleet fragmentation across narrow bodies, A330 and 787. Read More »
The expansion of Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways appears to have been tapered by the government. The airline has received approval for only 30 aircraft by 2023. At press time, it was operating 10 aircraft.
Bamboo could risk being sub-scale and fragmented. Its present fleet is a mix of Airbus narrow bodies, but the airline plans to add A330s and 787s to the mix.
Bamboo would probably hope to have a noticeable advantage over competitors. Proposed start-up Vinpearl Air is “qualified” to operate 30 aircraft by 2025, two years after Bamboo can grow to 30, the regulator said this week. Vinpearl wanted to operate 36 aircraft in 2025 but the regulator said this would exceed market demand. Vinpearl could launch in July 2020.
From Bamboo’s launch in January until the end of April, it recorded US$14 million in losses.
Vietnam’s airlines are expected to be flying 300 aircraft in 2023: 155-160 from Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar, 102-106 from VietJet and 30 from Bamboo.
