Vietnamese carrier Bamboo Airways has taken delivery of its first 787-9, and seemingly surprised most journalists with a First Class option. Maybe a communist country having the concept of first class is hard to grasp, but the airline clearly thinks there is a market for it.

Bamboo have already signed a  deal with Melbourne Airport in Australia to fly from Hanoi next year.

The 302 seat aircraft has four first class individual seats in a 1-1-1-1 at the nose, 24 42″ pitch business class in a 1-2-1 of six rows and 274 economy seats – the standard is 31″ pitch but 78 seats have a 32″ pitch a the rear.

Bamboo is a very modern fleet, already having taken delivery of A320neos. It already has 1 A319,  11 A320-200, 3 A320neo (with 2 more due in the next month), 2 A321-200, 4 A321neo. It has 3 787-9’s on immediate delivery with another 7 due in the next two years.