The Vietnamese budget airline VietJet has agreed to buy 100 passenger jets from the US aircraft maker Boeing for US$11.3 billion, the airline said Monday, in a deal signed in front of the US president Barack Obama in Hanoi.
VietJet said the deal was "the largest ever single commercial airplane purchase in Vietnam aviation".
It was penned in front of the Vietnamese president Tran Dai Quang and the American leader, who is on a three-day trip to the communist nation.
A White House official confirmed the deal for 100 Boeing jets was among a raft of commerical agreements sealed on Monday worth more than $16bn.
“We expect this will support 60,000 American manufacturing and technology jobs,” the official added.
Founded in 2007 VietJet, which has previously drummed up publicity with bikini-wearing air stewardesses, is making a major move into the lucrative South East Asian aviation sector.
In February the carrier announced that it had signed a $3.04bn deal with US engine maker Pratt & Whitney, underscoring the growth potential of the region’s low-cost airline market.
Industry players have said that South East Asia, including Vietnam, is a key growth market for budget air travel, driven by a growing middle class, many of whom are travelling for the first time.
Boeing has forecast that the region needs 3,750 new airplanes in the next 20 years, with more than three-quarters of the deliveries being single-aisle airplanes favoured by budget carriers.
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Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
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Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
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WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
