(Reuters) -A U.S. court has approved LATAM Airlines Group SA's bankruptcy reorganization plan, the region's largest air transport group said on Saturday.

The U.S. bankruptcy court for the southern district of New York approved the plan for a restructuring under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, the airline said, adding it hoped to emerge from bankruptcy protection in the year's second half.

Its plan will inject about $8 billion through a combination of capital increase, issue of convertible bonds, and the new debt.

Born in 2012 from the merger of Chile's LAN with Brazilian rival TAM, LATAM filed for bankruptcy protection two years ago in the United States because of the fallout of pandemic curbs.

(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard and Clarence Fernandez)