Stepping up its fleet expansion plans, Hawaiian Airlines said it will now have two Airbus A330-200 jets in service by 2010.

The state's largest carrier said today that it has signed a new lease agreement with New York-based CIT Group to lease a 298-passenger Airbus A330 starting in 2010.

The new wide-body aircraft will join a separate A330 jet that company will take delivery from aircraft lessor AWAS that same year.

A third leased A330 jet will be delivered by AWAS in 2011.

The jets are in addition to up to 24 long-range Airbus jets that Hawaiian is purchasing from the European manufacturer. Airbus plans to deliver the first of the purchased jets in 2012.

"These commitments to increasing the size of our fleet and to bringing the new aircraft to Hawai'i two years earlier than planned deepen Hawaiian's already substantial investment in our home state and its economy," said Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian's CEO.