ROME, ITALYItaly's new flag carrier ITA (Italia Trasporto Aereo) will lease four Airbus A350-900 jets from Kuwaiti lessor ALAFCO.




According to the agreement, the first planes will be delivered in the second and third quarters of this year.

ALAFCO currently owns 12 Airbus A350-900 jets directly delivered from the lessor's order book with Airbus.

The Kuwaiti company originally placed its order to acquire a dozen of A350-800 jets in 2007 but converted it to the larger -900 variant in 2010 as many others. Airbus dropped the A350-800 program in 2014 due to a lack of demand.

After restructuring and rebranding itself, ITA selected the European planemaker as its aircraft supplier. However, the order placed with Airbus did not include the manufacturer's best-selling widebody, the A350. It only covered ten A330neo, eleven A320neo, and seven A220s.

ITA is planning to lease a further 56 aircraft, including the A350s. The carrier did not elaborate on the exact number of A350s it would add but revealed that 13 out of the 56 could be widebody aircraft.