Angola’s TAAG resumes international services

TAAG Angola Airlines (DT, Luanda) has resumed international commercial flights with limited regular services to Portugal and Brazil, its biggest intercontinental markets. The Southern African state-carrier is seeing a gradual growth in passenger numbers on its flights to Lisbon and Sao Paulo Guarulhos since the resumption of services on September 22, 2020, spokesperson Carlos Vicente told ch-aviation. He said the airline at this stage had no plans to add further international routes, including to South Africa. The airline is operating three weekly return services from Luanda to Lisbon departing north-bound on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; with one fortnightly service between Lisbon and São Paulo operating on Fridays. It uses its own B777-300(ER) on the routes, of which it has five in the fleet, according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module. The Angola Press Agency reported Portugal and Brazil topped the list of countries to which Angola gradually would resume flights since the re-opening of its international borders on September 21, 2020. It quoted Angolan Transport Ministry spokesperson Manuel Junior as saying Portugal’s TAP Air Portugal (TP, Lisbon) would fly the same number of flights from Lisbon to Luanda in line with the countries’ bilateral air service agreement. TAP was operating three flights per week to Luanda from September 21, 2020, according to a schedule on the company website. In September, the Portuguese carrier resumed about 76% of its normal pre-COVID-19 operation, making about 700 round-trip flights per week. This included 59 flights to 13 cities in Africa, as well as 22 flights a week to Brazil, 30 flights on eight routes in North America and the Middle East, 498 flights to 35 European cities and 159 flights between six cities in Portugal, the carrier said in a statement.