Air Greenland’s only A330neo, OY-GKN (msn 2020), remained incapacitated at the time of going to press after a collision with a SAS Scandinavian Airlines aircraft at Copenhagen Kastrup on May 23 caused damage to one of its wings, forcing it to wet-lease in capacity to keep the route operating.

The Greenlandic carrier took delivery of its new flagship A330-800 and only jet aircraft, which it calls Tuukkaq, in December and inducted it into revenue service so that it took over from its sole A330-200 - which it has now retired - on the trunk route between Kangerlussuaq and Copenhagen.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the rest of its fixed-wing fleet comprises one DHC-8-200, six DHC-8-Q200s, and one Beech (twin turboprop) Super King Air operated as a medevac aircraft.

The 166 passengers it had just carried from Kangerlussuaq had disembarked and the jet was being towed to the hangar when the incident occurred, Air Greenland recounted in a Facebook post on May 25, and the jet “is unfortunately out of service.”

It said that “after arrival and after everyone had left the aircraft last night, the driver of the [pushback tug] that was moving the aircraft into the hangar had the misfortune of hitting a parked SAS aircraft. Tuukkaq unfortunately sustained minor damage to one wing in the incident. Our technicians are currently working at full speed with Airbus to repair the damage, but we expect Tuukkaq to be out of service until Saturday this week.”

That day has now passed, and ADS-B data shows that the A330 was last in the air on the evening of May 23. Air Greenland told ch-aviation on May 30: “We are awaiting spare parts and have been getting help from Privilege Style in Spain with a B777, and we now also have Jettime and Hi Fly helping out.” Privilege Style currently operates a single B777-200ER, EC-MUA (msn 28524), ch-aviation fleets data shows, which according to Flightradar24 ADS-B data was flying between Copenhagen and Kangerlussuaq on May 26-29.

The Greenlandic carrier added in its Facebook message that it had “hired two aircraft for the coming days and monitored the weather forecasts in each location” but that poor weather had compelled the airline to cancel some flights. It indicated that the two aircraft were from Danish ACMI/charter specialist Jettime. One month ago, Air Greenland said it would be wet-leasing in a B737-800 from Jettime under a summer-season ACMI contract. The Danish carrier currently operates ten B737-800s and one B737-700.

However, it added that “additional aircraft have also been deployed to replace Tuukkaq, and new travel plans are currently being sent out to all affected customers.” It gave no indication of what these arrangements were or how long they would continue.

The incident at Copenhagen airport was the latest in a series of recent ground damage accidents involving widebody aircraft in the Danish capital, with others involving a TUI fly Nordic B787-9 and a Sunclass Airlines A330-900.