Vietnam carriers splurge $6.5bn on Airbus jets

Vietnam airlines bought 40 airplanes worth $6.5 billion from France's Airbus on Tuesday, as President Francois Hollande visited the communist nation to drum up business ties with one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economies. 

The deal is the latest move by Vietnamese aviation giants to boost fleets and feed demand from a mushrooming middle class with money to burn on air travel both at home and abroad. 

Hollande, the third French president to visit Vietnam since independence, said the "very important deals" deepened ties with its former colony where France's legacy is ubiquitous, from the country's colonial-era buildings to French-influenced cuisine.   

"We agreed to encourage both countries to establish economic partnerships on the basis of technology transfer," Hollande said after Airbus signed three separate deals. 

Low-cost private airline VietJet, known for its bikini-clad hostesses, bought 20 planes while national carrier Vietnam Airlines and budget airline Jetstar Pacific bought 10 each in "deals worth 6.5 billion", Airbus Asia spokesman Sean Lee told AFP. 

He did not provide a breakdown of each deal's value, but VietJet said later in a statement it was spending $2.39 billion on its new planes. 

The VietJet purchase comes after it bought 100 passenger jets from US aircraft maker Boeing for $11.3 billion in May, during a visit by President Barack Obama. 

It called the deal the largest single commercial air plane purchase in Vietnam aviation history. 

Founded in 2007, VietJet has gained notoriety with bikini-wearing air stewardesses and along with Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar is making a major move into the lucrative Southeast Asian aviation sector.

- Maritime disputes -

Hollande, who arrived in Vietnam with around 40 French business leaders, will spend much of Tuesday in Hanoi meeting communist top brass.

He will then head south to Vietnam's economic hub Ho Chi Minh City to meet French entrepreneurs, including some from Vietnam's burgeoning tech industry.

Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang said the two leaders also discussed maritime freedom, a key issue for Hanoi which has traded barbs with Beijing over competing claims in the South China Sea. 

"Me and the president committed to respect the rule of law in the seas and oceans, reaffirming the commitment to maintain freedom of maritime and aviation," he said. 

"The two sides stressed the importance of solving disputes by peaceful means, not to use or threaten to use violence on the basis of international laws."

Tensions between Hanoi and Beijing soared in 2014 when China moved a controversial oil rig into disputed waters, sparking angry riots in Vietnam.

Hollande's official agenda does not include any plans to discuss human rights or freedom of expression in the tightly run communist country, where bloggers and dissidents are routinely jailed for criticising the regime. 

Three human rights groups wrote an open letter to Hollande urging him to press Vietnamese leaders on rights issues during his two-day visit. 

"Activists and human rights defenders have been regularly subjected to physical assault, surveillance, restrictions on their freedom of movement, and arbitrary arrest and detention," according to the letter by the International Federation for Human Rights, also signed by a Vietnamese and French rights group.

Source: AFP