Malaysia Airlines has taken delivery of its first Airbus A350-900.

“We are very excited to welcome this new addition to our family,” said Izham Ismail, CEO of Malaysia Airlines. “With its technological advancements the A350-900 is an important milestone for us on this journey, helping boost our competitiveness on our long-haul flights. The addition of the A350-900 also underlines our commitment to operate a young and modern fleet.”

According to Airbus, the aircraft is on lease from Air Lease Corporation and is the first of 29 A350s to join ALC’s fleet. Malaysia Airlines has five more A350-900s on order, all to be leased from ALC.

“We are proud at Airbus to count Malaysia Airlines as a new operator of the world’s most modern and efficient aircraft,’’ said John Leahy, chief operating officer for customers at Airbus Commercial Aircraft. ‘’Congratulations also to ALC for receiving the first A350 XWB in its fleet, proving the popularity of this aircraft in the lessor community across the globe. We are looking forward to our continued partnership with Malaysia Airlines and ALC – two major companies in the aviation industry.’’

Malaysia Airlines will initially deploy the aircraft on intra-Asia flights before flying it between Kuala Lumpur and London from the first quarter of 2018.

Malaysia Airlines, which becomes the 17^th airline operator of the A350, already operates three A330-200Fs, 15 A330-300s and six A380s.

The A350 XWB family of aircraft has received a total of 858 firm orders from 45 customers to date, according to Airbus.