Angola’s National Civil Aviation Authority is in charge of the country’s civil aviation and its functions include regulation, supervision, guidance, control, regulation, supervision, inspection, certification, approval and licensing.
Some of the latest achievements include issuing certificates to its main international airport in Luanda. The delivery of this certificate represented a milestone for civil aviation in Angola, as it is the first certification of a world-class airport, thus complying with the ICAO recommendation.
An operational safety supervision system by ICAO audited Angola with an average of 62,03% effective implementation. The result was higher than the regional average of the 24 countries of the South and East Africa (ESAF) region, which is 57.1%. Angola’s civil aviation was listed above the African target of Abuja (60%) and close to the global average of 67.7%.
The Authority aims to promote the growth of the civil aviation sector, allowing Angola to become an essential hub in the Sub-Saharan Africa Region, with the anticipated future development and challenges of SAATAM (Single African Air Transport Market).
Angola further plans to liberalise its airspace thereby promoting the opening of the Angolan air transport market.
The country also aims to stimulate competitiveness for its flag carrier company, TAAG with the entry of new competitors, ensuring its relevance in the Angolan, regional and intercontinental markets and its economic and financial sustainability. TAAG operates in 12 domestic and 11 international destinations. In addition to passenger transportation, the fleet carries out cargo transportation, an essential service for the development of the local ecosystem.
The country further plans to make the international airport in its capital, Luanda the main hub of its aviation strategy.
The airports at Cabinda, Catumbela, Huambo, and Lubango Airports will operate with a focus on traffic generation in the short term; the Soyo, Malanje, and Namibe Airports will be airports to be explored in a model with medium-term potential, given their vocation to support oil exploration or the tourist potential.
Angola believes that liberalisation will bring benefits, such as new routes, more frequent flights, better connections, and lower prices, which will influence the increase in the number of passengers and create a direct and indirect positive effect on trade, tourism, business travel, job creation and improvement of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
TAAG hopes to boost its foreign exchange income as it doubles its fleet from 21 to more than 40 aircraft by 2025.
Angola has started taking steps to implement the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) by adopting some of the principles of the Yamoussoukro Decision.
Airlines that fly to Angola include Air France, Emirates, Lufthansa, Airlink, American Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Qatar Airways and KLM.
