Vietnam Airlines signed an agreement Thursday with French aircraft manufacturer ATR to buy five short-haul turboprops, part of a plan to more than double its overall fleet by 2020, reported dpa. "We believe that the addition of five more ATR 72-500 planes to our fleet will meet rising demand on short routes in a timely fashion," company chairman Nguyen Sy Hung said. Air travel in Vietnam has been expanding rapidly, more than keeping pace with the country's 8 per cent annual economic growth rate. In the first nine months of 2007, Vietnam Airlines carried 12.7 per cent more passengers than in the same period last year. The first of the 70-seat ATR 72-500s will be delivered to the state-owned carrier in January 2009, and the remaining four by 2011, according to a company press release. Vietnam Airlines currently has 10 ATR-72s in a total fleet of 47 aircraft. It plans to expand to 110 aircraft by 2020. In early October, the company signed a deal with Europe's Airbus to purchase 10 A350-900s. It also inked an agreement with Boeing to purchase 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The decision to buy both Airbus and Boeing planes in the same category was criticized as political motivated by some analysts, who said it would lead to higher maintenance costs. The Vietnamese government plans to invest 15 billion dollars in aviation through 2020, including eight billion dollars for new planes and five billion more for airport construction. The country plans to have 10 international airports, up from two at present.
