Angolan national flag-carrier TAAG Angola Airlines (TAAG) regards South Africa as a strategic market for growing its air cargo business. “[The c]argo segment is nowadays strategic for TAAG with a rising contribution to the company’s sustainability,” explained airline CEO Eduardo Fairen.

“South Africa is a key market within our cargo strategy and operational footprint,” highlighted Cargo director Sajid Khan. "In 2022 we transported approximately 1 632 000 kg of miscellaneous goods/cargo from Johannesburg to different parts of the world, and the trend is to increase the volume of cargo and demand for our services.”

TAAG could provide connectivity to cargo hubs across Africa and to Europe and to Latin America. It is currently the only southern hemisphere carrier that connects Africa with Latin America (São Paulo in Brazil and Havana in Cuba). The other destinations currently served by its cargo operations are (apart from its home base of Luanda) Cape Town and Johannesburg (South Africa), Lagos (Nigeria), Lisbon (Portugal), Madrid (Spain), Maputo (Mozambique), Rome (Italy), São Tomé, and Windhoek (Namibia).

The airline is also implementing its project of re-establishing its routes between Luanda and China. This will allow Luanda to become a hub for air cargo between China, South Africa and Brazil.

In this regard, TAAG sees the entry into operation of Luanda’s new and state-of-the-art international airport, scheduled for next year, as being a “game-changer” for air cargo operations in Southern Africa. The new airport, which will be named in honour of the country’s first President, Dr António Agostinho Neto, will have an annual cargo capacity of 50 000 t. “I see positive synergies and benefits for the business regarding the new Luanda International Airport,” said Fairen.

Because of the importance to the airline of both air cargo and of the South African market, it will be represented by a high-level team at the Air Cargo Africa Conference 2023 in Johannesburg, starting on Tuesday. The delegation will comprise Khan, deputy director Caetano Quibuba and division manager José Mpasi.