The United Arab Emirates wants TAAG Linhas Aéreas de Angola (DT) to boost its flights between Dubai and Luanda claiming that the increase would help stimulate trade.
| TAAG 777 climbing out of Dubai (S Cross) |
Following an audience with the UAE's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Angola's Foreign Minister, Abraão Gourgal, said Mr Al Nahyan considered TAAG's current 3x weekly service to Dubai to be "too little" and urged the Mr Gourgal to consider boosting flights for the sake of increasing trade.
According to Angop, Mr Gourgal later added that, while trade between the UAE and Angola "is not that considerable," increased airlinks could change that.
In all likelihood, Emirates (EK) is aiming to boost its own 3x weekly flights to Luanda; a route that has proven to be very lucrative for many foreign carriers, but very difficult to truly exploit. The Angolan Government's parsimonious approach to the granting of frequencies and flights to foreign carriers means that BASAs signed with Angola often require some degree of reciprocity for TAAG's benefit, either through codeshares or the establishment of reciprocal routes.
