Two Gulfstream G700 Business Jets Listed Under Vietnam's THACO, Operated by Bluesky Airways
Why It MattersOperator-managed registrations of this kind show how ultra-long-range jets can sit under a corporate group's name while a separate management company flies them, leaving ownership and financing structures opaque to outside observers.
What happened
Two Gulfstream G700 business jets, registered VN-A989 and VN-A998, are listed under Truong Hai Auto Corporation (THACO), the group of Vietnamese billionaire Tran Ba Duong, in the international aviation database Planespotters. Both aircraft are recorded as delivered in September 2026, are listed as active, and are operated by Bluesky Airways. VN-A989 previously carried the registration N923GA, and VN-A998 previously carried N727GD.
A photograph of VN-A998 was taken at Anchorage airport in the United States on 28 September 2026. Flightradar24 data show the aircraft flew from Savannah to Anchorage.
Planespotters also lists under THACO a Gulfstream G650ER registered VN-A966, recorded as delivered in June 2024 and also operated by Bluesky Airways, a business aviation company in Vietnam that provides aircraft operation and management services. The data do not clarify the ultimate legal owner of the two G700s, whether they were purchased or leased, or their intended use.
The G700 aircraft
The G700 is one of the top-end business jets of US manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace. Reference market pricing puts a new G700 at about US$84.9 million, depending on configuration, so the two aircraft have a combined reference value of nearly US$170 million, or more than VND 4,000 billion. This is not a transaction value announced by THACO.
According to Gulfstream, the cabin can be arranged with up to five separate living areas covering reception, work, dining and rest spaces, and some configurations include a master bedroom, a large bed and a shower. The cabin is more than 17 m long and nearly 2.5 m wide, with 20 large oval windows. The aircraft can carry up to 19 passengers and provide sleeping places for 13.
It is powered by two Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 engines, with a maximum operating speed of Mach 0.935 (nearly 1,000 km/h at cruising altitude) and a maximum range of about 14,353 km, allowing many intercontinental routes.
Industry impact & what to watch
In business aviation, a registration listed under one corporate group and an operating certificate held by a management company are often two separate things. Management firms such as Bluesky Airways typically handle crewing, maintenance and flight operations for aircraft whose owners prefer to stay in the background, so a database entry shows who is listed and who flies, not who holds title or how the purchase was financed.
The pairing of a G650ER delivered in 2024 with two G700s delivered in 2026 under the same listed group and the same operator points to a fleet being built up at the top end of the large-cabin segment, where range and cabin layout rather than cost drive selection. Ultra-long-range jets of this class serve intercontinental routes without a fuel stop, which is the use case the G700's stated range is built around.
The next verifiable step is any registry or operator filing that names the legal owner or lessor of VN-A989 and VN-A998, since the database listings alone leave that open.
