Bamboo Airways targets resourceful foreign investors

The private airline is looking for investors from the U.S., Japan and Europe with experience and resources, it said in a statement Sunday.

Bamboo Airways wants to make an initial public offering (IPO) next year on a Vietnamese stock exchange at VND60,000 ($2.6) per share to raise $100 million.

This planned BAV share price is higher than Vietnam Airlines HVN shares at VND34,400 ($1.48), and lower than Vietjet’s VJC shares at VND143,600 ($6.2) at the time of writing.

The airline Sunday became the first private airline in the country to receive a wide-body Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. The only other carrier using such aircraft is the state-owned Vietnam Airlines.

Bamboo Airways plans to have a total of four Boeing 787-9s by January as part of a 30-aircraft fleet, most of them narrow-body Airbus A321neo aircraft,

The airline, which began flying in January, is now operating 34 domestic and international routes. It has conducted almost 20,000 flights to date, carrying almost 3 million passengers.

Bamboo Airways hopes to acquire 30 percent of the domestic aviation market next year as it flies 85 routes, 25 of them international.

It also plans to operate 100 aircraft by 2025, carrying 50 million passengers annually.