TAAG Angola Takes Delivery of New DASH 8-Q400 Aircraft

TAAG Angola Airlines has reinforced its fleet with the delivery of another DASH 8-Q400 aircraft. The new aircraft arrived today at Luanda International Airport and is the last of 6 aircraft ordered from De Havilland Canada.

Symbolically, the aircraft was baptized as 'Dande' and registered as 'D2-TFF'. The aircraft was flown to Luanda by Captain Olívio Patrício First Officer Paulo Correia.

This aircraft is very reliable and has lower operational cost when compared to the other Boeing 737. It is extremely efficient for domestic flights as well as medium-haul international routes such as Windhoek (Namibia), Maputo (Mozambique) or Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo).

The DASH 8-Q400 is a turbo-propeller aircraft. In TAAG's configuration, it carries 74 passengers, including 64 in the economy class and 10 in the business class. It'll enable the airline increase capacity on domestic and regional routes.

TAAG currently operates a fleet of 21 aircraft, including 6 Dash 8-Q400s, 7 Boeing 737-700s, 3 Boeing 777-200s, and 5 Boeing 777-300ERs.

The fleet diversification within (but not limited to) the DASH 8-Q400 new models brings greater profitability and cost savings to TAAG's operation, as well as balancing the ratio between the number of aircraft and destinations typologies (long-haul vs medium-haul).

Globally, and from a strategic point of view, this fleet optimization allows TAAG to consider the potential/business case for (re)opening of new routes geographically close to Angola.

The DASH 8-Q400 is a modern, fast, and comfortable aircraft, overall valuable benefits for passengers.