=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2007/10/01/financial/= f182305D83.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, October 1, 2007 (AP) Vietnam Airlines Plans to Buy Jets By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE, AP Business Writer (10-01) 18:23 PDT SEATTLE, (AP) -- In an order split between fierce rivals, Vietnam Airlines has said it plans to buy 10 long-range, midsize Airbus A350s while adding to a previous order for Boeing 787s, the aircraft makers said Monday. Toulouse, France-based Airbus SAS said Vietnam Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding for 10 A350-900 XWBs plus 20 smaller A321s. Airbus has yet to schedule delivery of those planes. The order is worth about $4 billion at list prices, though airlines typically negotiate steep discounts. Boeing Co., whose commercial airplanes unit is based in Seattle, confirm= ed that Vietnam Airlines has said it intends to add more planes to a 787 order it placed in 2005, but it declined to say how many, citing the airplane maker's policy of not releasing details on orders until they're final. The first 787 model Boeing is manufacturing sells for an average list price of $162 million. A representative of state-owned Vietnam Airlines could not immediately be reached to discuss the orders. Airbus designed the A350 to compete with Boeing's 787, which will be the first large commercial jetliner made mostly of carbon fiber composites when it enters service next year. Composites are lighter and more durable than aluminum, which Boeing has said will make the 787 more fuel efficient and cheaper to maintain. So far, Chicago-based Boeing has far outpaced Airbus on orders in the increasingly hot market for midsize, long-haul jets, which many airlines have been ordering as they update and expand their fleets with more fuel-efficient planes. To date, Boeing has won more than 700 orders for the 787, while Airbus h= as received 154 firm orders and 110 nonbinding commitments for the A350, which is scheduled to enter service in 2013. Airbus had to invest in a costly redesign of the A350, widening the fuselage and using more composites, after customers weren't happy with the plane's original design. Vietnam Airlines has a fleet of 23 Airbus planes — including 10 A320s, 10 A321s and three A330s — plus 10 extended-range models of Boeing's 777. Five previously ordered A321s are still scheduled for delivery, as are the four 787s the airline ordered in 2005. Late last week, British Airways PLC split an order between the two aircraft makers, ordering 24 787s and a dozen Airbus A380 superjumbos. The double-decker A380 will overtake Boeing's 747 as the world's largest passenger airliner. It's slated to be delivered to its first customer, Singapore Airlines Ltd., this month, following about two years of delays caused by production snags that wiped billions of its parent company's profit forecasts. ---------------------------------------------------------= ------------- Copyright 2007 AP <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF AIRLINE".