Viet Nam’s Bamboo Airways adds first in-house E190

Bamboo Airways (QH, Hanoi) began in-house Embraer operations on February 1, 2021, with the deployment of ERJ 190-100LR VN-A266 (msn 19000570), Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. The 8.4-year-old regional jet, owned by CDB Aviation, was operated by China Southern Airlines (CZ, Guangzhou) through February 2020, the ch-aviation fleets history module shows. It was originally due to deliver to MAI – Myanmar Airways International (8M, Yangon) in 2021. However, due to the ongoing severe restrictions on travel in and to Myanmar, preceding the recent military coup d’etat likely to further dampen demand, the aircraft was transferred to the Vietnamese carrier. While Bamboo Airways has yet to file schedules for the E190, ADS-B data indicates that it is currently deploying the aircraft from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, Banmethuot, and Pleiku. The fast-growing Vietnamese carrier already wet-leases five Embraer aircraft under long-term deals: two ERJ 190-200LRs from Great Dane Airlines (DW, Aalborg) and three ERJ 190-200ARs from LOT Polish Airlines (LO, Warsaw Chopin). In September 2020, Bamboo Airways pledged to add up to ten E190/E195s in the “short-term”. As Vietnam has largely contained the COVID-19 pandemic with less than 2,000 registered cases to date, the country’s booming domestic market is expected to recover much faster than the global average.