Windhoek Hosea Kutako International → Luanda 5 Jun · 16:35 – 5 Jun · 19:05Direct · 3h 30m

Luanda → Windhoek Hosea Kutako International 8 Jun · 11:05 – 8 Jun · 15:35Direct · 3h 30m

It was my first time flying with TAAG Angola Airlines and of course I was feeling excited. They do not fly to Asia, but are based in Luanda. TAAG is Angola’s national carrier and the gateway to Africa, or so they claim. Based in Luanda, the airline operates domestic services within Angola, medium-haul services in Africa and long-haul services to Brazil, Cuba, and Portugal. It is an airline that is 100% owned by the government.

For my trip, since I was visiting Namibia and Angola is a neighbouring country, I decided to take a short flight over. Flights on TAAG are not cheap, due to the limited availability. Between Windhoek and Luanda, TAAG is the only airline that operates on this route, so it has a monopoly.

Shortly landing in Windhoek after my long-haul flight on Ethiopian Airlines, I cleared immigration and went to check in for my flight to Luanda. The Windhoek airport is small and easily navigable, so within half an hour, I am back in the transit area waiting for my flight out.

At first, I was expecting to take a De Havilland Dash 8 small propeller plane as stated in the flight booking, but somehow the WDH-LAD flight was on a more spacious B737. With only 30 passengers, the flight was empty for a plane with 180 seats. I had the whole row to myself.

TAAG does not have any frequent flyer partnerships with the big alliances, so I did not manage to accrue mileage on this flight.

As you can see, the inflight magazines are worn out. It featured an issue as old as Feb 2023 even though it is June already. The magazines must have been read by many people.

A simple B737 flight, with a single aisle and seats arranged in 3-3. It is a typical budget airline flight, but it is quite a rarity for TAAG, as they do not have many planes of this model. The leather on the seats is quite worn out, the seats are dirty. But instead of enduring a 24h bus ride and crossing the border, the flight is always much welcome.

The box shows one of the landscapes in Angola. The giant sable antelope is the most widely recognised representative of Angolan biodiversity, owing to its endemic status, rarity and physical attributes. It is the national icon and as you can see, it is printed on the snackbox. One of the last large mammals to be described in Africa, it is confined to the upper Cuanza basin, in central Angola.

Well, I did not expect too much from TAAG and this snackbox came as a relief. I was quite hungry by then. It included a tangerine, a savoury ham and cheese bun, a slice of cake and a piece of chocolate. The flight is about 2 hours 10 minutes long, so it is nice to have something to munch on.

As for the choice of drinks, there was even wine and beer. So being alcoholic me, I chose a bottle of wine. This is a white wine that is made in Portugal. In this part of the world, I thought that South African wines would dominate. However, since the catering came from Luanda airport, so the wines from Portugal over there were much more common, due to the strong trading and economic ties between the two countries.

Around 17:45, we began our descent into Luanda Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, and you can see the densely populated areas of the city. It is very much different from the landscape in Windhoek that greeted me.

We landed one hour ahead of schedule. But in fact, it was TAAG that gave it a longer arrival time such that it would not have to face complaints or compensation for delays. Being the hub, there were many TAAG airplanes of different models on the tarmac.

Two of the passengers who were South African were taking another TAAG connecting flight onwards to Portugal. The rest of us cleared immigration, quite quickly, and to my surprise, the immigration official did not ask me any questions. I thought that a Singapore passport would garner some attention as it is not common for us to visit Angola. We have a visa free agreement (for 30 days) to visit Angola. He just stamped my passport and then I was off to the carousel area to collect my luggage. It felt nice to be in a new country and the flight on TAAG was a pleasant experience, especially since this airline is relatively unknown.