Vietnam Airlines confirms 2023 order for 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8 single-aisle jets
February 19, 2026
Vietnam Airlines has announced that it has confirmed its plans to acquire 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8. The deal, first announced under the Biden administration back in 2023, will see the carrier add the single-aisle jets to its fleet of 96 aircraft, allowing the company to expedite the expansion of its domestic and regional network amid soaring travel demand across Southeast Asia.
Vietnam Airlines confirms order for 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8
On 17 February, Vietnamese carrier Vietnam Airlines confirmed a longstanding order for 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. The order, which has previously been listed for an undisclosed customer by Boeing, marks the first order by the carrier for Boeing narrowbody jets and a focus of the airline’s fleet modernisation strategy around Boeing products. The carrier already operates 17 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in its fleet.
The order was finalised at a ceremony in Washington, DC. attended by Vietnamese General Secretary To Lam and US government representatives, alongside Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Stephanie Pope and Vietnam Airlines Chairman Dang Ngoc Hoa.
The airline’s current single-aisle fleet is dominated by Airbus products, with three A320s and 62 A321s. According to Planespotters.net, the airline has operated Boeing 737s in its past, although this was through two examples that were leased from now-defunct carrier TEA Switzerland in the mid-1990s.
According to Boeing, the 737 MAX 8 can carry up to 200 passengers, depending on internal configuration, with a range of up to 3,500 nautical miles (6,482 km), which will give Vietnam Airlines flexibility as it looks to expand it shorts and medium-haul networks. It is understood that specific delivery slots are yet to be negotiated between the parties.
The 737 MAX order actually dates back to 2023
The history of this latest Vietnam Airlines order dates back to 2023, when the then-US president Joe Biden made a trade visit to Vietnam. The commitment to purchase 50 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft was announced during that visit as part of a wider cooperation between the US and the Asian country.
According to Ngoc Hoa, the airline’s chairman of the board of directors speaking at the time, as part of the carrier’s 2025-2030 fleet strategy and vision for 2035, the investment in the new aircraft was part of a strategy that would see the airline accelerate its post-pandemic recovery and ensure a “prosperous outlook”.
He added that the new aircraft would be used by the airline to expand its services on key Vietnamese domestic routes as well as those to other countries in Asia and to modernise its fleet with more fuel-efficient aircraft.
Then, during a visit by President Trump to Vietnam in October 2025, the $8 billion order was reaffirmed by the airline as part of a wider US-Vietnam trade framework constructed by the Trump administration.
In a joint statement issued at the time, the White House and Vietnamese government described the framework as a way to “strengthen reciprocal, fair, and balanced trade” between them.
As part of the deal, Vietnamese companies signed 20 memoranda of understanding with US companies to purchase agricultural commodities, totalling over $2.9 billion. The aircraft order, as a supplement to that deal, formed the largest single element of the new trade deal.
The new aircraft are needed to meet rising demand
With demand for air travel rising rapidly both within Vietnam as well as the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, the new aircraft will be used by the airline to both adds frequencies on existing routes as well as open up previously unserved markets.
Vietnam’s air traffic is expected to double to more than 75 million annual passengers between now and 2035.
As the Hanoi Times previously reported, Boeing’s Commercial Market Outlook shows Vietnam’s aviation sector is among the fastest-growing in Southeast Asia, driven by a rising middle class and post-pandemic recovery in tourism.
Meanwhile, Vietnam Briefing reported that in 2024, Vietnam’s aviation sector handled 109 million passengers, and Vietnamese airlines transported over 54 million of those (49.5%).
Vietnam Airlines and Boeing are no strangers
Although the order may be the first time that Vietnam Airlines has ordered new single-aisle aircraft direct from Boeing, the partners are no strangers to each other. In the past, Vietnam Airlines operated 17 Boeing 767-300s plus ten Boeing 777-200s.
While many of these have been replaced by the 17 Dreamliners, which first arrived with the carrier in 2015, the Airbus A350 has also taken up the long-haul mantle within the airline, with 14 of the type now forming the backbone of the carrier’s long-haul fleet.
That said, with its 17 Dreamliners (of both the 274-seat 787-9 and the 367-seat 787-10 variants) and the incoming Boeing 737 MAX 8s, the airline will once again become far more dependent on products from the US planemaker to equip it for future growth and modernise its short-haul fleet.
As demand for air travel in Asia continues to soar, so has the popularity of the Boeing 737 MAX family. In March 2025, Malaysia Airlines ordered 18 737 MAX 8s and 12 737 MAX 10 jets from Boeing, with options for 30 more. This was followed by Air Cambodia, which placed an order for 20 of the MAX family at the Singapore Airshow in November earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Vietnam Airlines’ local rival, VietJet Air, received the first of 100 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft it has on order in September last year as the carrier targets the rapid rise in demand for domestic and international travel from Vietnam.
Now, with its own order for the 737 MAX jets, Vietnam will be hoping to keep up with its local competitor, as well as the smaller player in the Vietnamese market, Bamboo Airways, as all three seek to attract the travelling public to their own services.
Featured image: Boeing
