TAAG, the Angolan airline, cancelled a flight linking Maputo (Mozambique) and Luanda (Angola) this evening, with 107 passengers on board, after almost nine hours of waiting at Maputo International Airport.
The flight, initially scheduled to leave at 15:50 (13:50 in Lisbon), was cancelled with the passengers already on board.
The captain of the flight (DT582) claimed that the reason for the cancellation was the bad weather in the Mozambican capital, although aircraft from Mozambique Airlines (LAM) making internal routes had landed despite the rain.
After the cancellation, the passengers, some of whom had flights to other capitals scheduled from Luanda, especially Lisbon, spent another two hours waiting for information at the company’s offices, which took responsibility for paying for their accommodation in the Mozambican capital.
Speaking to the Lusa news agency, the TAAG team at Maputo International Airport first claimed that the delay was due to the indisposition of a crew member, and then said that the flight was cancelled because the captain had exceeded his flight hours.
The new flight was scheduled for Sunday at 10:00 local time (08:00 in Lisbon).
TAAG is going through a period marked by labour disputes, an ongoing restructuring process and an accumulation of complaints from passengers who are unhappy with the company’s frequent flight delays and cancellations.
On Tuesday, the Angolan state decided to change the management of TAAG, choosing António dos Santos Domingos as chairman of the board of directors and Nelson de Oliveira, who returns to the “house” where he worked for 38 years, as chief executive.
But the company also returned to profit, recording a net profit of 460.1 million kwanzas (around 900,000 euros at the exchange rate at the time) in 2022, after years of losses.
