TAAG charms JNB-LIS market

 its flights to Lisbon.
The fares are almost half the
price than any other carrier so
many people are now choosing
to fly TAAG when they wouldn’t
have before,” he says.
In 2014, Emirates and TAAG
announced that Emirates,
in its position as majority
shareholder of TAAG would
take a role in the management
of the airline.
Ricky says TAAG has been
offering specials on flights
to Portugal for approximately
the last five months, but
before that, Iberia had been
the popular choice for the
SA Portuguese community.
Iberia offers a Europe summer
seasonal flight from Madrid
to Funchal, Madeira and
when the airline relaunched
its direct flights from JNB to
Madrid in August, it offered
many specials to recapture
the SA market. Ricky says
about 65% of the Portuguese
community in South Africa
is from Madeira, so the
connecting flight to Funchal
and the specials on the route
put Iberia flights in demand.
But since Iberia’s specials
and seasonal flights have
stopped, agents have had to
find alternatives. Sonia Da
Rocha of Luso Globo Travel, an
agency that also specialises
in serving the Portuguese
community, says to get
travellers to Madeira currently,
the agency will book a flight to
Lisbon and then a connecting
flight onto Funchal. She
recently quoted a client six
different options and the client
had chosen TAAG because
they were by far the cheapest:
The flight from Johannesburg
to Lisbon was R 5 700 on
TAAG versus R 11 100 on
Iberia for the same dates.
“TAAG also allows two pieces
of baggage and pre-seating
where other airlines may
charge for both,” says Paul
Da Silva director of XL Novo
Mundo Travel. He says the
flight from Johannesburg to
Luanda is less travelling time
than other connections via
Dubai, London or Frankfurt.
“It’s only three and half hours
to Luanda with a three-hour
delay at the airport and then a
seven-hour flight to Lisbon.”
 Sonia says TAAG also
offers a waiver on the Angolan
transit visa requirement for
South Africans connecting
via Luanda. “The airline is
also offering their flights to
Lisbon on a daily basis now as
opposed to four times a week
– probably to keep up with
demand,” she says.