The group has leased a number of aircraft to the Asian budget carrier
Last year Vietjet carried 25.3m passengers on 133,000 flights. Photo: Getty
Dublin-based aircraft lessor Avolon is sueing Vietnam’s Vietjet in London’s Commercial Court. The dispute is linked to jet leases between the pair, the Irish Independent has learned.
Six separate subsidiaries of Avolon, which are being represented by Clifford Chance, have taken individual actions against the budget Asian carrier.
Vietjet operates a fleet of more than 100 Airbus A320 and A321 jets and leases a number of wide-body A330 aircraft. It operates more than 400 flights a day to destinations across Vietnam as well as to countries including Japan, Australia, Singapore, South Korea and China. Vietjet also recently placed a provisional order for 20 Airbus A330neo wide-body jets as it eyes route expansion to Europe and the United States.
But the bulk of the carrier’s fleet is leased. Figures at the end of last December from Fleet Tracker showed that Avolon was the most exposed lessor to Vietjet by net book value at that time. The other top four were Carlyle Aviation, CCB Financing Leasing, SMBC Aviation Capital, and ICBC Aviation.
A spokesman for Avolon declined to comment on the legal action it has taken against Vietjet.
Vietjet’s non-executive directors include Donal Boylan, who joined the board in 2019.
Mr Boylan is a co-founder of Declan Ryan’s leasing firm TippAero, and is the former CEO of CDB Aviation Lease Finance. He was also the vice chairman of Bohai Capital, the Hong Kong company that owns most of Avolon. For a brief time in 2016, he was on the board of Avolon.
VietJet generated revenue of €2.2bn last year and posted a profit of €9m. That compared with a €133.7m loss the year before.
In 2023, Vietjet safely operated 133,000 flights and carried 25.3 million passengers. That excluded passengers on its Vietjet Thailand unit. The passenger numbers were 183pc higher than in 2022, and 7.6 million of them were carried on its international flights.
The airline launched 33 new domestic and international routes last year, bringing the total number to 125, including 80 international and 45 domestic routes.
Last year, Vietjet and Boeing concluded additional terms of a pre-Covid agreement to buy 200 737 Max jets from the US aeroplane maker over the next five years. The first 12 aircraft under that deal are due for delivery to Vietjet this year for use by its Thailand-based subsidiary.
Vietjet signed a memorandum of understanding with Carlyle Aviation Partners last year for pre-delivery payment financing facility worth up to $550m to fund the purchase of the Max aircraft.
