Kuwait Airways (KU, Kuwait) has said it will wet-lease in capacity given delays in the delivery of its first A320-200neo.
In a statement, the Kuwaiti carrier said three A320neo that were to have delivered in March this year have since been deferred to June, October, and November.
Under its original plan, the trio of A320neo were to have seamlessly replaced three A320ceo - 9K-AKA (msn 181), 9K-AKB (msn 182), and 9K-AKC (msn 195) - that were taken out of service as of March 31 ahead of their sale to a third-party.
As such, with the wet-leased aircraft only due to arrive in two weeks time, Kuwait Airways said it has been forced to cancel select flights. Affected passengers will be accommodated on other flights.
Kuwait Airways is expecting a total of fifteen A320neo from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac). Other than the three outgoing jets, it currently operates eight A320ceo.