In a sign the fleet consolidation process at Bamboo Airways (QH, Hanoi Noi Bai International) has bottomed out, the airline will lease two narrowbody Airbus aircraft to provide extra capacity over the upcoming New Year and Têt (Vietnamese New Year) travel peak.
The carrier confirmed the presumed wet-lease via a December 11, 2023, statement, saying it had sourced a single A320-200 and A321-200 from an unidentified lessor, with the aircraft due to enter service from January 1, 2024. They are the first additions to the Bamboo Airways fleet since the airline underwent a restructuring this year, resulting in many aircraft returning to lessors.
"The successful leasing of two aircraft and increased load to serve the Tet peak season affirms Bamboo Airways' recovery efforts, as well as demonstrates the trust of partners in the airline's existence and development," a spokesperson said.
Bamboo's existing fleet is down to 15 aircraft, including two A320-200s, four A320-200Ns, four A321-200s, and five ERJ 190-100LRs. The airline says the additional two aircraft will boost its available seat capacity by 20% over the holiday period. The Bamboo Airways spokesperson said the airline will deploy most of that additional capacity onto the Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh - Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh - Vinh City, Ho Chi Minh - Thanh Hoa, and Ho Chi Minh - Haiphong city pairs.
Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways has taken delivery of a factory-fresh Airbus A321neo. The new plane will complement Bamboo Airways fleet of almost 30 mostly Airbus aircraft. Destined to fly local routes around Vietnam, the new Airbus touched down at Noi Bai Airport on February 7.
Bamboo Airways’ first A321neo has landed and is now hard at work. Photo: Airbus
“The A321neo will enable us to combine comfort, efficiency, and the right capacity for our planned services, which will primarily serve fast-growing leisure markets in Vietnam,” said Bamboo Airways’ Trinh Van Quyet.
“This decision once again underscores the position of the A321 as the aircraft of choice in the mid-market segment with its additional capacity and the very lowest operating cost.”
The aircraft promises a 16% fuel efficiency edge over comparable aircraft. That’s in addition to significant noise and emission cuts.
The first of 30 Airbus A321neos for Bamboo Airways
The plane, VNA222, flew to Hanoi from Hamburg via Bateen Airport in the UAE. Both sectors took just under six hours to fly. After arriving in Hanoi, Bamboo Airways didn’t let the plane rest long. Two days later, on February 8, VNA222 was in the air and flying around Vietnam for the busy Lunar New Year.
Bamboo Airway’s latest addition can seat 223 passengers, including 215 passengers in the main economy cabin and eight passengers in business class. The Qui Nhon-based airline says the new A321neo optimizes seating space, aisles, legroom, recline. the cabin design reportedly creates a sense of space that’s comfortable for passengers and convenient for crew.
It’s a good thing Bamboo Airways is happy with their first new A321neo. They have ordered 30 of them. All are due to touch down in Vietnam by 2025. They might need them too. Since starting operations just 25 months ago, upstart Bamboo Airways has captured a 16.7% domestic market share in Vietnam. Bamboo Airways has moved onto 50 routes in and around Vietnam and carried around seven million passengers in that short window. Despite most international services in and out of Vietnam getting suspended, there’s plenty of airline activity within Vietnam.
While much larger competitor Vietnam Airlines has flagged losses exceeding US$600 million from 2020, Bamboo Airways has just announced pretax profits of US$17.38 for the year. It might be a slender profit, but it’s a profit nonetheless. It is a remarkable achievement for a startup airline that’s also had to deal with 2020.
Bamboo Airways makes a profit in 2020
Despite the tough year, Bamboo Airways increased its profits against 2019 levels. Bamboo Airways also operated more flights and flew more passengers than in 2019. Unlike Vietnam Airlines, Bamboo Airways is primarily a domestic airline. It has benefited from Vietnam’s domestic aviation market getting back to normal. International border closures mean flight happy Vietnamese have to stick close to home. That also helps Bamboo Airways fill up their seats.
But there’s no guarantee Bamboo Airways’ strong performance will continue this year. The domestic market is operating at close to capacity. To get significantly more Vietnamese flying, fares will need to get reduced from already low levels. That will impact the bottom line of Bamboo Airways and its competitors. Until international flying resumes (and Bamboo Airways is keen to expand its international operations), the potential to absorb the excess capacity coming into Vietnam may be limited. With 30 new Airbus A321neos to fill over the next few years, that’s a lot of extra business Bamboo Airways will need to generate. Still, given their track record over the last two years, they may just pull it off.
Bamboo Airways (QH, Hanoi) is in the process of adding its maiden widebody aircraft, an ex-Vietnam AirlinesA330-200. Going forward, the carrier is also eyeing leasing an A380-800 for its touted flights to the United States.
Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows A330-200 msn 943 was ferried from storage at Lourdes/Tarbes to Manchester Int'l on June 21. It was subsequently repainted into Bamboo Airways' livery and departed back to Lourdes on July 1. The 11-year-old aircraft is owned by FPG Amentum and currently registered as 2-RLAX ahead of its transfer to the Vietnamese register.
Bamboo Airways is planning to acquire up to thirty B787-9s from Boeing for its planned long-haul expansion. Deliveries are, however, only scheduled to start during the third quarter of 2020.
According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, the carrier currently operates an all-narrowbody fleet including one A319-100, two A320-200s, and three A321-200neo. It is also in the process of adding another two A320s and one A321neo, and wet-leases a further three A320s.
Meanwhile, Bamboo Airways is also planning to add more second-hand widebody aircraft, including a leased A380-800. Chairman and CEO of parent company FLC Trinh Van Quyet told the Financial Times that the carrier would like to use the A380 on new direct services to the United States where it is looking at serving either San Francisco, CA or Los Angeles Int'l from either Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.
"We will start in the first quarter of 2020 if we get permission by the end of this year," he said.
Vietnam secured FAA Category 1 status earlier this year, paving the way for direct flights. Thus far, only Vietnam Airlines has applied for, and been granted, exemption authority by the US Department of Transportation (DOT). It has, however, said that while it was considering direct services to the US, they would probably be loss-making and would require subsidies from the Vietnamese government.
The 4-year-old Airbus narrowbody 9N-ALM (msn 6626) was ferried from Kathmandu to Hanoi on May 17, 2019, and has been operating on behalf of the Vietnamese carrier since May 20, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.
The aircraft is currently based out of Ho Chi Minh City and operates daily from the southern Vietnamese gateway to Hanoi and Quang Ninh, as well as from Hanoi to Da Nang.
Bamboo Airways also wet-leases an A320 each from Cambodia's Sky Angkor Airlines (ZA, Phnom Penh) and Turkey's Freebird Airlines (FH, Istanbul New). The carrier's in-house fleet includes one A319-100, two A320-200s, and three A321-200neo. It is also in the process of adding a further two A320s and one A321neo. Bamboo Airways also has ten B787-9s on order from Boeing.
For its part, Himalaya Airlines operates a further two A320s on its own network.
The Airbus narrowbody is leased from GECAS and was originally destined for the now-defunct Primera Air Scandinavia. According to Skyliner Aviation, the aircraft still features the Scandinavian carrier's livery and is therefore in the process of being repainted ahead of its induction into service.
Though it has yet to secure its Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) let alone commence flight operations, Bamboo Airways has already assembled a fleet that consist of one A319-100s and two A320ceo, all sourced from FTAI Aviation, and two A320-200s wet-leased from Freebird Airlines (FH, Istanbul Atatürk).
GoAir (G8, Mumbai Int'l) has terminated negotiations with Vietnam's start-up Bamboo Airways (Qui Nhon) regarding wet-leasing of nine A320-200s after the two airlines could reportedly not agree on a price, the Financial Express has written.
The Vietnamese full-service start-up has already delayed its October launch. The carrier is due to commence operations initially with two A320s wet-leased from Small Planet Airlines (S5, Vilnius). It is also planning to dry-lease three aircraft from FTAI Aviation, namely one ex-SilkAirA319-100 and two ex-Turkish Airlines A320-200s. None of the five aircraft has been delivered to Vietnam so far.
As of March 2019, the start-up will also dry-lease three A320-200s from CDB Leasing.
For its part, GoAir is currently trying to either wet-lease or return to lessors its A320-200s as it transitions to an all-A320neo airline. According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the Indian LCC currently operates nineteen A320-200s and twenty-two A320neo. Of the latter, four units are presently grounded due to the lack of spare parts for Pratt & Whitney engines and one more due to unspecified "airframe related issues", the Economic Times has reported.
Vietnamese conglomerate FLC Group says it has chosen Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) and the A320neo Family for its nascent unit Bamboo Airways' fleeting requirements.
A company statement issued on March 6 said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for twenty-four A321neo with the Europeans with deliveries to run through to 2025. Thereafter, it will consider ordering a further twenty-four Long Range variants - A321neo(LR)s - to bolster its fleet in the longrun. Although no firm delivery dates have yet been set, Airbus has pledged to prioritize Bamboo Airways orders for handover between 2022 and 2025.
"After studying and scrutinizing the options, FLC Group and Bamboo Airways have decided to order 24 aircraft from Airbus to meet early Bamboo Airways demand through until 2025. After commissioning and testing in terms of performance, we will also consider further expansion options," Trinh Van Quyet, chairman of FLC, said.
Bamboo Airways is still awaiting a business licence from the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport. To mitigate Hanoi's concerns about infrastructural saturation, it has proposed operating to and from Vietnam's secondary airfields largely avoiding Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
Bamboo Airways aims to offer direct international flights to Vietnamese leisure destinations where parent firm FLC has a strong presence. These include Qui Nhon, Quang Ninh, Haiphong, Thanh Hoa, Phu Quoc, and Nha Trang Cam Ranh. In addition, it will also offer domestic flights between city-pairs that include Thanh Hoa - Qui Nhon, Thanh Hoa - Phu Quoc, Thanh Hoa - Nha Trang, Hai Phong - Qui Nhon.
