HANOI, Vietnam (Reuters) --National carrier Vietnam Airlines has ordered five Airbus A321 jets with most of them to be delivered next year, state media report.
The Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam (Vietnam Economic Times) newspaper on Thursday quoted an Airbus official as saying the first three narrow-body Airbus A321s would be delivered in July 2004, the fourth in October and the last in early 2005.
Officials at the state-owned airline, which now has 34 planes, were not immediately available for comment.
In April, airline president Nguyen Xuan Hien told Reuters the government had approved the $260 million contract to buy the five Airbus jets and would fund the purchase by exempting Vietnam Airlines from paying corporate tax.
He said a soft loan of $36 million would be provided while the airline would contribute $100 million from its own funds and borrow the remaining $124 million commercially.
Vietnam Airlines posted a 67.5 percent surge in third quarter revenues to $196 million from the second quarter as travel bounced back after the containment of the deadly flu-like SARS virus.
The airline currently operates 13 Airbus A320s and A321s in its fleet. It has four Boeing 777 jets, seven Boeing 767-300s, eight ATR 72s and two Fokker 70s.
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