Brazilian airline Azul's board of directors has approved a capital increase as part of an out-of-court restructuring that gave lessors equity in lieu of nearly $550m in obligations, the company said late on Thursday. The capital increase of up to 3.37b reais ($591m) came through the issuance of new shares, Azul said in a securities filing, with fresh investment from controlling shareholder David Neeleman, a serial aviation entrepreneur who also founded U.S. airline JetBlue. Neeleman currently holds 67% of Azul's voting shares, with the other 33% being held by shareholders of Trip, an airline Azul acquired in the early 2010s. He is expected to lose control of the firm as part of the restructuring, but remain a major shareholder.<br/>
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Air Greenland is to introduce a narrowbody jet to its fleet, with the introduction of an Airbus A320neo scheduled for delivery at the end of next year. The airline is to take the twinjet under a six-year lease from Carlyle. It will be “adapted to Greenlandic conditions”, says the carrier, before being put into service in spring 2027, ahead of the peak season. The aircraft will be used to operate services between Ilulissat – on the western coast, north of the capital Nuuk – and the Danish hub at Copenhagen. Air Greenland says the aircraft will complement its Airbus A330-800 which also flies Copenhagen connections. The carrier says a new runway at Ilulissat will enable it to increase capacity with the A320neo. Obtaining a new aircraft directly from Airbus would have taken six or seven years, says CE Jacob Nitter Sorensen. “So we have chosen to lease the [A320neo] to be ready when the new international airport in Ilulissat opens, and to gain financial flexibility as the route is still new,” he adds.<br/>
To offset sluggish growth in the Chinese market this year, Nok Air plans to reduce traffic to the mainland and compensate with flights to India as well as new destinations such as Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. Wutthiphum Jurangkool, CE of Nok Air, said there are several factors affecting tourism and aviation this year, particularly the changing behaviour of Chinese travellers. He said Chinese tourists now favour Japan over Thailand, while the Chinese government is not enthusiastic about supporting outbound trips. Thai airlines continue to be stymied by declining confidence over safety in Thailand among Chinese travellers, attributed to scammers and human trafficking issues, said Wutthiphum. Nok Air already scaled down its Chinese flights from 16 a week in December last year to 12 a week since January across three cities: Nanning, Zhengzhou and Nanjing. The number of flight connections to China could change in the future, he said. The airline has not estimated a passenger target for this year given the sluggish Chinese market in January, said Wutthiphum.<br/>