Angola’s national carrier, TAAG Angola Airlines, has commenced flights into Nigeria.
The airline’s maiden flight arrived at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos on Monday afternoon.
The Chief Executive Officer, TAAG Angola Airlines, Dr Rui Carreira, said the over 50-year old carrier had been trying to expand into Nigeria in the past years but recently got the opportunity to do so.
He said the process to begin flight operations into Nigeria took over one year to achieve.
“This inaugural flight is a dream come through and we hope to increase our destination in Nigeria and the neighbouring countries,” he said.
Carreira said the expansion was part of plans to not only increase the airline’s network but also promote business between Nigeria and Angola.
“We hope that our governments will work hard to facilitate the movement of our people,” he said.
According to him, the airline will operate Luanda to Lagos flight services twice weekly using a Boeing 737-700.
He said, “We are very excited to be announcing our new service to Lagos – the latest destination added to our network that will further connect African countries and beyond and by which we expect positive results.
“This route will allow easy connections to and from Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, Lisbon and Porto.”
In a similar development, the Asaba International Airport has hosted the inaugural flight of an indigenous airline, Azman Air to Asaba, the Delta State Capital.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737, marked SN-AIS touched down the airports runway at exactly 4.25pm on Sunday operated by Captain Ibrahim Mamman.
The Managing Director of the Azman Air, Dr Faisal Abdulmunaf, accompanied by the Chief Policy Adviser to the Governor of Delta State, Prof. Sylvester Monye, expressed delight at the commencement of operations in Asaba airport.
He said that four flights a week to and from Asaba would be on Abuja route while two flights a week would be via the Lagos route.
He said the airline had aircrafts with capacities for 148, 124 and 110 passengers at a time.
