Air Malta has added a ninth aircraft to its fleet, as part of its plans to extend its route network and revive its ailing business. 

The leased Airbus A320 landed in Malta late on Thursday and is expected to begin running flights on Air Malta's network within the coming days. 

It has been reconfigured to the airline's specifications, with an Etihad Airways Engineering team applying Air Malta livery to the aircraft in Abu Dhabi.

As part of the preparatory process, the aircraft was also subjected to a six-year heavy maintenance check, Air Malta said in a statement announcing its latest fleet addition. 

The aircraft is six years old, an Air Malta spokesman told Times of Malta. 

Malta's national airline has come in for criticism over the past month for a series of flight delays, which sources inside the company have blamed on "hasty" decisions to lease aging planes.

The airline has denied that version of events, though last month it said that it had replaced a wet-leased aircraft following a raft of complaints.

Air Malta's summer schedule will add 17 new routes to its network, with three of those being flights between cities not involving Malta.

"This aircraft will give us additional flexibility in operating these
routes and the over 4,000 additional flights we are planning to operate
this year," said Air Malta chairman Charles Mangion.

"This growth strategy is not only beneficial to the airline but to the country at large."