Latcharter, a Latvian charter airline owned by Loftleidir-Icelandic, a subsidiary of Icelandair Group, has reached an agreement with Israir to lease two Airbus A320 aircraft to the Israeli airline for three years. Loftleidir-Icelandic has also renewed a contract for the lease of one Boeing 767-300ER to Israir until the end of this year. These contracts are worth 3,5 billion ISK or 50 million USD. The Airbus aircraft, previously operated by Air Canada, will be the first Airbus aircraft operated by Israeli airlines. Latcharter leases the aircraft from the US aircraft leasing company KJ Aviation. Loftleidir acquired Latcharter in midyear 2006. At that time Latcharter operated two Airbus aircraft, and the signing of this agreement doubles the Latcharter Airbus fleet. Latcharter plans further fleet expansion in the near future. Gardar Forberg, who was previously with Islandsflug and Air Atlanta, is the Director of Latcharter. Gudni Hreinsson, Managing Director of Loftleidir Icelandic says: "Our three year cooperation with Israir has been a great success for both companies. The operation on the Boeing 767-300ER aircraft has been successful, and when the need rose to renew the fleet for Israir's shorter routes, the cooperation between the companies was expanded. Our main objective by the acquisition of Latcharter was to increase Loftleidir-Icelandic's product-and service range in the field of international aircraft trade. It is a pleasure to see that this intention of ours is showing such tangible results." Israir is owned by the largest holding company in Israel, Ganden Group, which has holdings in 15 Israeli transportation, aviation, technology and real estate companies. For further information, please contact Guðni Hreinsson at +354 5050334