LOL: Qatar Airways Considering TAAG Angola Investment

Konde. ET turns a profit most years.

I didn't see any racial innuendo here. The guy was just honestly critiquing TAAG and that's it. And to the guy going on about Africa nice people rhetoric, please keep that to yourself. I'm not flattered. Nothing ever works in our countries. It's sickening. There isn't a single profitable African airline. Please!

@Art you need to brush up on your vocabulary. Lucky did not once mention the race, but he was critiquing the airline. To criticize an airline that is a company is not racist in it itself. Now, if he were to criticize the specific people who work for the airline by making derogatory statements about their race, ethnicity, national origin, or even culture you may have a case against Lucky.

The EK team improved Taag hugely but they were never able to remove a lot of the employees as it was too politically sensitive. Unfortunately Taag has some senior staff mismanaging their departments but they are protected politically. With only a 39% stake, I think Qatar will also struggle to remove these staff. EK were also unlucky in that the oil price fell soon after they entered their management agreement and the Kwanza devalued hugely. Angola imports aviation fuel and so Taag's fuel costs shot up hugely soon after the deal was signed. Nonetheless, EK still almost got Taag to break even in 2016 following years of catastrophic losses. EK were also hampered by Government interference and met huge resistance when trying to reduce Taag's loss making domestic network and some loss making international routes such as to Cape Verde. I also think Qatar are brave to fly a 787 to LAD. 787s require stable GPUs which the parastatal handling agent Ghassist lacks. Also, when loading a 787 one needs to understand that any damage to a 787 may not be so visible as on older aircraft, as the the 787 fuselage is composite and not aluminium. So there may be damage beneath the surface on a 787 that is not visible if a loader knocks it. If a loader knocks an aluminium frame aircraft there will be visible surface damage. A 787 requires ground staff to have a reporting culture however small a knock happens, which sadly Ghassist currently lacks.

@John - the “pathetic line” that African people are wonderful only irritates people who don’t want it to be true. Sure, there are bad apples but there is a warmth and honesty that I haven’t found anywhere else in 50 years of traveling the world. To me Africa remains the single most interesting and satisfying continent to visit. If you have only lived or visited East Africa I suggest you give the rest a try, especially countries like Ghana and Senegal.