"We will try to understand, as soon as possible, why regular flights are suspended with Portugal and not with other European countries," he told Lusa, a source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office.
On Thursday, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva had considered it "absurd" and "illogical" for the United Kingdom to suspend flights with Portugal.
"In our opinion, it is illogical. In the first place it's a sudden and unexpected measure and this is a first element of negative surprise. Secondly, it's a measure that hits hard on people who haven't been properly warned about it. It was announced at 5 p.m. one day to come into effect at 4 a.m. the next," said the head of Portuguese diplomacy.
"It's also an absurd measure, the foundations of which we don't know. Suspending flights from Portugal on the grounds of connections between Portugal and Brazil is, with all due respect, completely absurd," he added, adding that he had already asked his British counterpart for a conversation "to understand the grounds" for the decision.
The Minister of State and Head of the Civil House of the President of the Republic, Adão de Almeida, announced this Thursday that the country will suspend air links with Portugal, Brazil and South Africa, from 00:00 on January 24.
The temporary suspension of flights by Angola stems from the need to control the spread of the covid-19 pandemic, particularly the new strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease.
"The dynamics of scheduled flights will change," said the minister, noting that the measure begins to take effect from 00:00 on 24 January 2021.
"We will have a period of just over a week where the aim is to allow as many Angolans and foreigners as possible who are in those countries to return," he stressed.
Adão de Almeida stressed that other air connections will continue to operate without any changes, adding that the difference is that, "even for these connections, post-disembarkation testing becomes mandatory.
The other airlines with which Luanda currently has connections (Emirates and Qatar Airways, Air France and Lufthansa) maintain their frequencies and flights on a regular basis.
Although there is no need for authorization to enter the country, passengers are required to fill out a travel registration form, added the ruler.
The covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 1,979,596 deaths from more than 92.3 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
Angola has a total of 18,613 cases, of which 2180 are being treated, and 425 deaths.
