Ten international firms are interested in refinancing three new planes that should be delivered to Air Malta by 2024, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said on Monday.

In reply to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Mario de Marco, Caruana said negotiations were currently underway for the planes to be financed by a third party and then leased by Air Malta.

He said that in 2019 Malta Med Air had placed an order for two long haul Airbus A321XLR planes following approval by the Tourism Ministry. The plan was for the planes to be leased to Air Malta.

Last July, the government started a process to renegotiate the contract with Airbus and instead ordered three Airbus A320NEOs. No penalties were incurred for the change in order. The first plane will be delivered in 2023 while the other two will be delivered in 2024.

“If these negotiations fail, Air Malta has other alternatives,” Caruana stressed.

In a separate reply to another question, Caruana said the government had engaged two different firms to help with the renegotiation of this contract.

Two direct orders were issued for legal advice from a leading international law firm and tax advice from an international tax advisory firm.

“This is a complex transaction and the specialist legal and tax advice required is not available locally,” a spokesman for the Finance Ministry told Times of Malta in reply to questions.