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“We are very cautiously re-opening our routes after temporarily suspending scheduled flights last year,” Belarnício Muangala, CEO of Luanda-based Fly Angola told African Aerospace. “Our aim is to open point-to-point services looking to serve under-served and strategic markets that complement and even feed [flag carrier] TAAG.”

The carrier, which operates two Embraer EMB-145s and one De Havilland Dash 8-300, stopped flying except for charter services after operating costs soared amid a devaluation of the country’s currency, the kwanza.

In March, its first re-started domestic route was Luanda to Cabinda, an enclave and province in the north, but detached from Angola, hence heavily reliant on aviation services to access the rest of the country, said Muangala.

FlyAngola is flying this route under a government public service obligation contract. While the state covers a significant part of the ticket price paid by the customer, the payment comes to the airline several months later which is a cash flow challenge, explained Muangala. This is, however, the country’s largest domestic market and is also served by state-owned carrier TAAG.

Just a few days before Fly Angola began its first ever scheduled international service: a twice-weekly service to the island of São Tomé and Príncipe. “In fact, this is the first time any private Angolan airline launches scheduled service to anywhere outside the country,” said Muangala.

“We prefer regional international routes that are very close, but completely underserved, with terrible alternative connections and very expensive for passengers – with a negative impact in trade, tourism and visitor numbers,” he noted.

“Our next launch will be Luanda to Namibian capital Windhoek via Lubango [a city in the south of Angola]. To our surprise, the Namibian authorities were very quick and swift to approve and issue the necessary operating permits. It is from the Angolan side that we are getting all sorts of delays, but we hope to start shortly,” he added. “This is one of the most important routes for southern Angola and it used to be served by TAAG in the exact same way we are proposing to fly, but we have to wait.”

If it can obtain the necessary approvals, Fly Angola has ambitions to open a base at Lubango, which has no international services at present, and expand from that airport with additional service to other international destinations, said Muangala.

Another regional route launch, anticipated for this year, is Luanda to Pointe-Noir in the Republic of Congo, a one-hour flight which used to be served on a weekly basis by TAAG, but has been abandoned in August 2024.

“This is a typical 50-seater regional route and Luanda has the best connections to highly-demanded cities, such as Lisbon, São Paulo, Maputo or Johannesburg. Our goal would be to feed those TAAG routes with this regional flight and contribute to the development of the Luanda hub together with the national carrier,” said Muangala.

Fly Angola, which is owned by Angolan business interests, will stick with its 50-seater aircraft for now. “Our fleet is about right for our needs as we re-start our scheduled operations,” said Muangala.

In November, the carrier is also looking forward to transferring its operations from the existing Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport in capital Luanda to the new Agostinho Neto International Airport (ANIA), which has been developed at a cost of $3.8 billion to help position the Angola as a southern Africa hub.