TAAG Angola Airlines will welcome the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to its fleet after placing an order with the aircraft manufacturer for four of the widebody jets.
The national airline will add the 787 to its existing fleet of Boeing jets as it looks to build up its intercontinental operations across Africa, Europe, South America and Asia.
TAAG CEO Eduardo Fairen said: “Our goal is to work with the best manufacturers in the world towards a multi-type fleet in order to ensure we have the appropriate aeroplanes for each flight typology, namely our intercontinental connections.
“The 787 option suits our intent for modern, size-wise and efficient equipment, able to progressively replace our current widebody fleet and provide our customers with an improved flight experience.”
Operating with the goal of placing Angola as the "gateway to Africa", the airline currently flies to 12 domestic destinations and 13 intercontinental destinations across its passenger and cargo operations.
The state-owned company joins a growing number of African airlines expanding their fleets this year, including Nigerian airline Air Peace’s order of five Embraer E175 aircraft and Air Tanzania’s 767 Freighter order with Boeing.
Fleet expansion in the continent is also to be expected, according to Boeing’s recent Commercial Market Outlook, which projected Africa’s domestic passenger air traffic to quadruple over the next 20 years, with over 1,000 new aeroplanes needed in the same period to meet demand and replace older aircraft.
Discussing the projection, Boeing’s Middle East and Africa commercial marketing managing director Randy Heisey said: “African carriers are well-positioned to support intra-regional traffic growth and capture market share by offering services that efficiently connect passengers and enable commerce within the continent.”
