Sichuan Airlines has signed an agreement to lease a new Airbus A350-900 aircraft from Air Lease Corporation (ALC), due for delivery in the first quarter of 2019.

The aircraft will come from ALC's direct order with Airbus for the type. ALC is scheduled to receive 20 A350-900s from the French manufacturer between 2017 and 2023.

In September 2016, Sichuan Airlines signed a Letter of Intent for leasing three A350s from AerCap and one from Air Lease Corp. Specifically, it is scheduled to introduce its first A350 XWB in 2017, which will be deployed on a new long-haul service linking Chengdu and New York next August.

The Chengdu-based carrier will fly the A350-900s across the Pacific, linking major cities in China with U.S. and Canada.

Sichuan Airlines currently operates 52 A320-200s, 34 A321-200s, 23 A319-100s, five A330-200s and four A330-300s.

Later this year, the airline will take delivery of the first A320neo and A321neo leased into China from ALC ", said Jie Chen, ALC's Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Asia in a statement.

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