In a statement, that agency explains that following the renewal of the AOC dos Transportes Aéreos de Cabo Verde (TACV), completed at the end of April, a team of AAC inspectors supervised the demonstration flight of the Boeing 737-700 in Cape Verdean registration, D4-CCI, owned by the Angolan company and since March 14 in Cape Verde.
It adds that this flight "is a legal requirement that occurs when a new type of device is introduced into an air carrier's fleet, before the start of operations" and that in this case the device "received the national registration" and was added to the Operations, "which is an integral part of the Air Operator Certificate".
"This fact allows the full exploitation of the device by the national company, with flight, cabin and maintenance crews with a Cape Verdean license", also refers to the AAC, adding that on 3 May, the ability to remove passengers was evaluated. in emergency situations on land and at sea, as part of the certification process.
"It should be noted that the certification of the Boeing 737-700, registration D4-CCI and the renewal of the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) took place at the end of last April", the AAC also reads.
TACV resumed operations, after being renationalised last July, at the end of December, after 21 months without activity due to international restrictions imposed with the covid-19 pandemic, initially with a flight between Praia and Lisbon. Subsequently, it extended these weekly routes to the Portuguese capital also from the islands of São Vicente and then Sal, and plans to resume flights to Boston (United States of America) in "mid-July", according to the administration.
On 14 March, as part of the State visit to Cape Verde by the President of the Republic of Angola, João Lourenço, the administrations of the two state airlines, TACV and TAAG, signed an agreement for the supply, on a 'leasing' basis, of of a first Boeing 737-700 from the Angolan carrier to the Cape Verdean company, which arrived at Praia international airport on the same day.
"In terms of our recovery and stabilization plan, we expect to be operating with three devices by the end of 2023, so we are open to any cooperation that TAAG may be interested in. Until 2023 there are three devices, but the market will dictate the exact number of planes that TACV will need", said previously, in an interview with Lusa, the chairman of the board of directors of the Cape Verdean company, Sara Pires.
"In an initial moment it was this aircraft. We need more aircraft, therefore, we will start a negotiation process for the arrival of new devices", she added.
According to information from TAAG, the Angolan company operates several Boeing 737s with a capacity for 120 passengers, essentially on domestic routes, which it is replacing with six Dash 8-400 turboprops.
Since the resumption of flights in December, TACV has operated a Boeing 757 on a 'leasing' basis, which according to the Cape Verdean Government had "performance problems", taking into account the 188 seats for an average occupancy of flights. of the company that is around 100 passengers.
TACV was privatized in 2019, with the sale of 51 percent of the share capital to Icelandic investors, and renationalized in July 2021 by decision of the Government, following the covid-19 pandemic.
