Gulf Air arranges purchase and leaseback deal for A320s with Japanese firm

Air Transport Intelligence (ATI) is reporting that the Mitsubishi subsidiary was behind the first of the A320 which was delivered in July and is funding the next three A320s due at a rate of one a month until October.

Announcing the transaction, MCAP chief executive Tatsuo Sato told ATI that his company was "aggressively" increasing the size of the fleet it managed and hoped that the contract would be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with the Bahrain-based airline.

Gulf Air chief executive Samer Majali said the addition of the new aircraft to the fleet would bring its average age down to 6.2 years. By the end of 2011, that would have fallen further to 5.4 years, giving the carrier one of the youngest fleets in the region, he added.

Gulf Air has already been to the market this year for A320 leaseback deals and in March acquired two aircraft through Standard Chartered Bank subsidiary Pembroke