Handover Ceremony Planned In Seattle September 21

VietJet, the low-cost Vietnamese airline, will take delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX aircraft more than nine years after placing its initial order. The aircraft will be handed over in a ceremony on September 21, 2025 in a Boeing facility in Seattle that Vietnamese President Luong Cuong is slated to attend.

President Cuong is scheduled to speak a few days later at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, after attending a reception hosted by President Donald Trump.

VietJet signed an initial order in 2016 for 100 of the 737 MAX jets for delivery between 2019 and 2023, and then extended the order for another 100 aircraft at the Farnborough Air Show in 2018. The upcoming delivery will be the first Boeing aircraft for VietJet’s previously all-Airbus fleet.

The delay in getting VietJet’s first 737 MAX is mostly due to the global grounding of the aircraft type after two crashes in 2018 and 2019 as well as the door plug incident on an Alaska Airlines flight in 2024. Those incidents resulted in lengthy delivery delays and made financing more difficult.

In 2019, VietJet revised its fleet strategy, at first going for an all-Airbus fleet before reverting to its Boeing orders. Currently, Vietnam is looking to avoid or reduce U.S. tariffs on Vietnamese goods. In January, VietJet announced a series of agreements with U.S. companies worth approximately $50 billion.

FMI:  www.vietjetair.com/