TAAG, the state-owned carrier of the Republic of Angola, has announced this Thursday it will hire, for three months, an aircraft from Portugal’s Hi Fly, one of the world’s largest ACMI operators.
Under the terms of the announced contract, Hi Fly will provide an Airbus A330 with their own crews to TAAG, which will deploy the aircraft in services connecting its base in Luanda to Lisbon, its most popular long-haul route.
TAAG says «this decision coincides exactly with the maintenance works it is undertaking and that TAAG is doing in part of its international fleet, [more specifically] the Boeing 777-300 model.»
The press release launched by TAAG says the airplane has a capacity of up to 250 passengers: Hi Fly’s only A330 with this specification is 9H-HFA, an Airbus A330-300 which carries 249 passengers in a two-class configuration (46 in Business and 203 in Economy).
According to Planespotters.net, TAAG’s long-haul fleet is composed of three Boeing 777-200 (two of which are stopped) and five 777-300ER, of which two are also stopped.
This effectively represents that the airline’s Luanda-Lisbon service will get to its second daily frequency, closely getting to the route’s capacity before the COVID-19 pandemic. The tickets in the A330 flights are already for sale on the company’s website.
«In global terms, [the wet-lease] is a management strategy that allows the continuity and operation regularity in a connection, Luanda-Lisbon, that sees lots of demand», TAAG added in the press release about the contract.
TAAG’s spokesman did not immediately answer Aviacionline’s question on whether their parked 777-200 could eventually operate the second frequency to Lisbon.
As far as monthly frequencies go, TAAG is still to reach pre-COVID numbers in this route. According to Cirium’s Diio Mi application, in July 2019 the airline operated 62 Luanda-Lisbon flights, while for July 2022 it has 53 frequencies on schedule (Hi Fly’s boost is already loaded on Cirium).
July will also see the first full month of TAAG’s Luanda-Madrid operations. The flights will also feed Iberia’s Madrid-Porto flights. For now, Porto, Portugal’s second-largest gateway, will not be served directly from Luanda with TAAG, as it was pre-pandemic.
