Air-India has taken two Airbus A310=300 aircraft from the Kuwait-based ALAFCO Aviation Lease and Finance Company on operating lease for a period of three years.

Vinod Kumar Mehra, director, materials management department, Air-India and Ahmad Abdullah AL-Zabin, chairman and chief executive officer, ALAFCO, signed the agreement in New Delhi last week, an ALAFCO release said in Dubai.

With the transaction, ALAFCO, a reputed operating lessor with other aircraft on operating lease in China, positions itself to benefit from the two fast growing aviation markets in the world.

ALAFCO was founded in 1992 by Kuwait Airways Corporation and is majority owned today by the Kuwait Finance House. The authorised share capital of the company is 30 million Kuwaiti Dinars (about $100 million).