Vietnam's Bamboo Airways to buy 50 Airbus A321neo planes - chairman

By Khanh Vu

HANOI (Reuters) - Bamboo Airways will buy 50 Airbus A321Neo planes, its chairman Trinh Van Quyet said on Thursday, as the Vietnamese carrier expands and begins international flights.

The first of the planes will be delivered in 2022, Quyet told Reuters on phone. He declined to disclose the value of the deal, which was signed on Thursday.

Quyet said the agreement includes the 24 planes covered by a memorandum of understanding signed with Airbus last March.

"We have chosen Airbus as the supplier of narrow-bodied planes, while using wide-bodied aircraft from Boeing," Quyet said.

Bamboo Airways, owned by property and leisure company FLC Group, plans to launch its first international flights late next month, initially to Japan, Singapore and South Korea, he said.

The airline, which made its maiden flight in January, announced a deal to buy 10 Boeing 787 wide-bodied jets worth $2.9 billion on the sidelines of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi late last month.

Bamboo also plans to launch non-stop flights to the United States late this year or early next.

Last month, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Vietnam complied with international aviation standards, allowing the country's carriers to fly to the United States for the first time and codeshare with U.S. airlines.

(Reporting by Khanh Vu; editing by David Evans and Kirsten Donovan)