Under the terms of the announced contract, Hi-Fly will provide an Airbus A330 with its crews to TAAG, which will deploy the aircraft on services connecting its base in Luanda with Lisbon, its most popular long-haul route.”
According to the press release by TAAG, the aircraft has a capacity of up to 250 passengers.
Hi-Fly’s only A330 with this specification is the 9H-HFA, an Airbus A330-300 carrying 249 passengers in a two-class configuration (46 in Business and 203 in Economy).
This effectively represents that the airline’s Luanda-Lisbon service will reach its second daily frequency, approaching the capacity of the route before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tickets for the A330 flights are already on sale on the company’s website.
“In global terms, [the wet-lease] is a management strategy that allows the continuity and regularity of the operation in a connection, Luanda-Lisbon, which sees a lot of demand,” TAAG added in the statement on the contract.
In terms of monthly frequencies, TAAG has yet to reach pre-COVID figures on this route.
According to Cirium, in July 2019 the airline operated 62 Luanda-Lisbon flights, while for July 2022 it has 53 frequencies scheduled (the Hi-Fly boost is already uploaded to Cirium).
July will also see TAAG’s first full month of Luanda-Madrid operations.
