Hainan Airlines likely to link Beijing to Fortaleza

China’s Hainan Airlines and Brazil’s Azul signed an agreement to launch a connection between China and Fortaleza in the Brazilian state of Ceará, with a stopover in Lisbon, Portugal, reported the specialized website NewsAvia.
The website cited the Fortaleza press, specifically the O Povo newspaper, as saying that the cooperation agreement was signed by the CEOs of both airlines, Chen Ming, for Hainan Airlines, and Antonoaldo Neves, for Azul.
One newspaper noted that the founder and majority-shareholder of Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras driver is David Neeleman, who is one of two members of the Atlantic Gateway consortium that bought the Portuguese state’s 61 percent stake in TAP – Air Portugal.
The Portuguese airline has, since 2010, had a code-share agreement with Air China, TAP’s partner in the Star Alliance, for scheduled services on the Porto/Beijing, Lisbon/Beijing and Lisbon/Shanghai routes.
Under the agreement, TAP transports passengers headed for China to Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome or Milan and Air China guarantees the rest of the trip. MDT/Macauhub