HANOI: Airbus on Friday signed deals for 30 passenger jets with Vietnam Airlines and an aircraft leasing company to help the state-run carrier modernise its fleet as air travel is taking off in the Southeast Asian country.

The European aircraft maker signed deals, agreed in principal and announced on October 1, for ten wide-body A350-900XWBs aircraft and twenty A321-200s at a signing ceremony in Hanoi.

The 30 Airbus jets have a total catalogue price of nearly 3.8 billion US dollars.

Vietnam Aircraft Leasing Company (VALC), which is co-owned by Vietnam Airlines, bought ten of the A321s and the airline bought the other 20 jets.

Airbus CEO in charge of customer relations John Leahy signed the deals with Vietnam Airlines CEO Pham Ngoc Minh and VALC CEO Tran Long.

The first A321s are due to be delivered by 2012 and the first A350-900XWBs by 2016.

Air travel is fast growing in the country of 84 million -- which has seen tourism and business travel surge amid more than eight per cent annual economic growth last year -- and foreign airlines and budget carriers are flocking to Vietnam.

Vietnam Airlines, which is set to be part-privatised soon, now has direct flights to 26 large cities in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, and plans to launch direct flights to Los Angeles by late next year.

The carrier now operates 47 aircraft, including 10 Boeing 777s, 10 Airbus A320s and 11 A321s. It will receive four more A321s next year and four Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners from 2009.

Vietnam and US aircraft maker Boeing in November signed deals for twelve additional 787-8 Dreamliners.

For shorter routes, Vietnam Airlines on December 6 also signed a contract for five ATR 72-500 turbo-propeller planes to add to its fleet of 10 planes from the Toulouse, France-based aircraft maker.

Under a modernisation plan, Vietnam Airlines will be allowed to expand its fleet to 60 planes by 2010, 85 by 2015 and 107 planes by 2020, subject to market conditions, the government has said. - AFP/ac