TAAG Angola, the national carrier of Angola is poised to invest heavily in the Nigerian market just as the carrier begins huge expansion projects in the New Year.
The airline’s Regional Manager for Africa, Mr. George Mawadri at the airline’s End Of Year Award and Appreciation Luncheon for its travellers partners in Lagos at the weekend said the event was the carrier’s way of saying thank you to the Nigerian market for the support it had given them over the years.
Companies that received outstanding performance awards are Touchdown Travels, NAL Travels, Victory Travels, Quantum Travels and Dees Travels.
Others are 24 Travels, Finchglow Travels, Satguru Travels, Goodness Travels and Wakanow.
He said, “You know after COVID we had to withdraw flights, brought back flights, we have picked up again with the help of the trade or the travel agencies and, today, we are saying thank you to them by giving them awards with those top 10 and even specific awards for digital improvement, best-improved agent, B2B agent and all.”
He equally noted that the idea was also to interact with them and the media who have come and other stakeholders like ambassadors from the Angolan embassy as well, from Brazil and Namibia, adding that it was a day for them to interact with stakeholders within this market and just say thank you to them for supporting TAAG Angola.
Mawadri disclosed that the carrier had been intentional about the Nigerian market with a focus on growing the business.
His words, “When we came into this market we have always looked at growing. We came into this market in 2019, just when COVID was kicking in. We had operated for one year before we had to withdraw because of the COVID pandemic, but we have come back and since then we started with three frequencies and we have increased the frequencies to six. Today we are operating three, six flights a week to Lagos.”
“As you heard earlier on, most of our flights were not connecting but we listened to the market and we had to now make some flights. We have three daylight flights and three-night flights so that we can enable connections to our other intercontinental and regional routes as well. Our plan is actually to become bigger within this market.”
He further stated that the desire of the carrier to grow and expand its operations had seen it invest heavily over the years with a new international airport, the Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport which just opened in November last year when the airline started its first passenger flights through the facility.
The Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport is the largest airport ever constructed by any Chinese enterprise outside of China. It is intended to be Angola’s main gateway to the world and an important air hub for Africa.
According to the airline chief, “We expect to get another three domestic flights within going through that airport and by the end of March 31, 2025, we shall have all the TAAG network going through the same airport. We have also invested in aircraft and I think you know also as well this has been delayed over some time because of the suppliers, whether it is Boeing or even Airbus but fortunately for us we have managed to get our first Airbus A220 into the market about a month ago and we expect and that is just one of 15 so we expect 14 more aircraft to be brought into the market.”
He further disclosed that the carrier is expecting the first B878 Dreamliner that will be coming into the market by January 18 2025, adding that once, “ We start getting in these planes we have a big airport which can sustain the number of passengers that can pass through, we’ll start opening up new routes.
Olusol Olajide- Sales Manager TAAG Angola Airlines, next Gloria Atumu -G.M APG Nigeria, Sebastiana Texeira- Consular Angolan Embassy Lagos and George Mawadri- TAAG Angola Airlines Regional Manager Africa.
“We have always wanted to expand within the region of Africa to new routes and also internationally out of Africa so we will be looking at expanding to London to China and other routes as well which will be announced within due course.”
He admitted that the difficulties which involved currency, the US dollar had been resolved for a long time by the Nigerian government, just as he expressed optimism with the economy and with determination to overcome some other challenges.
Blythe Motsinger
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