The carrier will purchase the A330neo range of aircraft, with half the planes coming from lessor Avolon Holdings Ltd and the rest ordered directly from Airbus through a sale and leaseback arrangement with Avolon, it said in a statement today.

The A330neo — built on the same platform as an older model — will allow Malaysia Airlines to use the same crew as the current generation aircraft.

Malaysia Aviation Group, Malaysia Airlines’ parent company, expects to be operating at 70% of pre-pandemic levels for domestic and international flights later this year, according to a statement made in April.

The stronger-than-expected pick-up in travel demand has also been a boon for plane makers, which are back to selling large numbers of jets after a hiatus of more than two years.

Malaysia Aviation is owned by sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

Bloomberg News reported in July that Airbus SE was leading the race against Boeing Co for Malaysia Airlines’ wide-body jet replacement campaign.