TAAG Linhas Aéreas de Angola (DT) will launch flights to either London or Paris CDG during the second half of 2014, the airline's director of operations, Mr. Rui Carreira, has disclosed. The route's launch, however, will hinge upon the delivery of a new Boeing 777-300ER, due in May 2014, he added.
Speaking to the Portuguese Lusa News Service during the Luanda International Trade Fair (Feira Internacional de Luanda - FILDA), Mr Carreira said:
"We have only five long-haul aircraft, and we think there is enough market demand to open new routes, but in May we will take delivery of a Boeing 777-300 and in June or July we will open a route to London or Paris, we do not yet know which but one of them is certain," he said.
Should the flights be convened, they would help bolster the airline's current European netwrok, which consists of Porto and Lisbon in Portugal. With the recent publication of the EU's updated Banned Carrier's Register still listing it, albeit in Annex B (i.e airlines which are restricted to only operating certain aircraft within the EU), Mr Carreira stated that the EU Ban only extended to TAAG's fleet of two B737-200ADVs, currently only used on domestic and regional flights.
"The ban applies only to two aircraft we have, and that put us on the Brussels 'blacklist', but we would never use these two aircraft on international flights, first because they are very small and second because it is not economically profitable," he said.
Recently, Angolan Transport Minister, Augusto da Silva Tomás, said TAAG would focus on covering all domestic Angolan cities while increasing its regional and international presence.