Tuesday, January 15, 2013

■ ANGOLA: TAAG's operating revenue up $120m in 2012 but lack of fiscal control remains a grave worry.

TAAG logo
TAAG Linhas Aéreas de Angola (DT), Angola's national carrier, registered a growth in passenger traffic of 11% for the year ending 2012, with 1.1million passengers flown, the airline said in a statement.  


TAAG headquarters, Luanda, Angola
TAAG headquarters, Luanda (Unknown)
In real terms, the growth translated into a growth of 22.6% in revenues, up USD120million to USD650million. No mention on profit was made.

However, despite the increase in revenue, passenger figures have returned to 2010 levels with TAAG also failing to surpass several targets set forth in 2010. In 2010, TAAG set targets to carry 1.7 million passengers per year as of 2012, as compared to 1.1 million then, with aims of posting a turnover of USD896 million per year, as compared to USD585 million in 2009. Ultimately it aimed to make a net profit of USD60 million in 2012, as compared to a loss of USD72 million in 2009.

TAAG’s board of directors said that the increase in revenues was "due to work carried out by a revenue management team, which focused on adjusting the available tariffs to actual demand." It went on to add that in terms of corporate objectives, success had only been achieved in two of the four areas – Growth, Training, Customer, and Control; that of Growth and Training.

The report said that in the "Client" department, much was left to be desired and that TAAG lagged far behind its competitors in that department. 

In relation to the "Control" objective, TAAG management bemoaned the carrier's "less than positive performance having fallen far short of its intended targets." An example given was the fact that Angolan carrier is part of the high number of companies whose accounts for 2011 were not approved by its sole shareholder, the Angolan Ministry of Economy.
"The lack of effective control of our financial flows constrains us greatly, limiting both efforts to reduce costs in the company, and the the growth strategy devised. Failure to get our accounts approved in 2011 by the Ministry of Economy is the best illustration of our failure at this level, it was very damaging to the public image of TAAG and should serve as a wake-up call to us all to heed the need to achieve a final transformation of TAAG's financial situation. "
Source [Expansão]