Air Malta has leased an aircraft, complete with its crew, to a Chilean airline for two months.

The Maltese national airline yesterday announced it had entered into a lease agreement with Sky Airlines for the provision of an Airbus A320 aircraft.

The aircraft will increase this airline’s capacity during the peak southern hemisphere summer and is expected to operate from Santiago in Chile to airports in Peru, Brazil and Uruguay. It will rejoin Air Malta’s fleet in early March in time for the local airline’s busy summer season.

The aircraft, with registration number 9H-AEF, will be operated by Air Malta cockpit crew and maintained by Air Malta engineers. A number of Maltese training pursers have also been sent to Chile to train Sky Airlines’ cabin crew.

The pilots deployed with this aircraft have been given specialised training to operate in South America and across the Andes mountains.

This is the fourth wet lease agreement between the two airlines since 2007. Through these agreements Air Malta generates additional revenue and leases out its excess capacity during winter. Former Air Malta customers included Etihad Airways, Libyan Airlines, Adria Airways and Air New Zealand.