Kuwait's Alafco leases 2 Airbus A320s to Olympic

Kuwait's Aviation Lease and Finance Co (Alafco) said on Thursday that Greece's Olympic Airlines has agreed to lease two Airbus A320s from it.

Olympic will take delivery of the two aircraft this month, for 72 months, Alafco said in a statement on the Kuwaiti bourse website.

Alafco, in which Islamic lender Kuwait Finance House and state-owned Kuwait Airways are its biggest shareholders, said monthly rental charges are 1 per cent of the listed price of $77 million per plane.

Alafco had said it will deliver 11 Airbus aircraft in the second half of 2009.

Under a 2003 restructuring, Olympic Airways re-emerged as the slimmed-down Olympic Airlines, which was then sold to an investment group in March this year.