After the lifting of the sanitary fence, in September last year, interprovincial travel resumed, albeit in a conditional way. At that time, Macon charged 27,000 kwanzas for trips between the capital and Huambo. However, in recent months the values have been decreasing until they reach the current 13,600 kwanzas, according to a survey carried out by Expansão.
Currently, anyone traveling with Macon from Luanda to Namibe has to pay 27,500 kwanzas, against the 30,000 kwanzas charged previously.
A trip between Luanda and Huambo, with Ango-Real, went down from 18,500 kwanzas to 10,500 kwanzas. In turn, TCUL currently charges 8,500 kwanzas, against the 10,000 kwanzas previously charged.
According to Expansão, the list of interprovincial transport operators with the highest prices is led by Macon. On the contrary, TCUL is the operator with the lowest prices.
Among the reasons that justify Macon's high prices are the company's operating costs with infrastructure leasing, vehicle replacement, among others.
"Our structure is very large and is supported by a very high cost," said Armando Macedo, Macon's commercial coordinator, quoted by Expansão
Macon travels to 42 points in the country, and its fares vary between 30,200 kwanzas for the Luanda-Dundo route and 4,300 kwanzas for a trip between the capital and Dondo.
In turn, Ango-Real only ensures trips to 11 destinations while TCUL only travels to six.
According to the Expansão survey, trips on Macon cost almost twice as much as on TCUL: for a trip between Luanda and Huambo, Macon charges 13,500 kwanzas while TCUL charges 5,000 kwanzas.
For example, for the route between Luanda and Soyo, the trip with Macon costs 10,100 kwanzas, while in TCUL passengers have to pay 7,500 kwanzas.
André Gomes, Director of Communication and Image at TCUL, quoted by Expansão, said that the company has the lowest prices to comply with the economic capacity of the citizens: "We try to practice the lowest prices on the market, but always within the operating cost limits".
Macon, on the other hand, has posted another table that says it deals with promotional fares on about five schedules and six routes. However, the prices do not reach those applied by TCUL. In this table, the company charges 10,000 kwanzas for a trip departing at 10:30 am on the Luanda-Benguela route, and the price for this route is normally 12,900 kwanzas.
It should be noted that the decrease that has occurred in recent times arose in response to the alert from the National Institute of Road Transport that, when lifting the sanitary fence, prevented operators from increasing prices in the face of speculation that was taking place. A few months later, following inspections by the regulator, a decline in the
According to Kambango Fernandes, responsible for the National Transport Observatory, "ticket prices are taxed within the limits stipulated by IGAPE, in light of Presidential Decree No. of each company, type of vehicle, operational capacity of the company".
Cited by Expansão, the official also made it known that if companies operate outside the law, they risk "seeing their business license and career concession titles removed".
The regulator also assured that there is no longer any speculation, as the current prices are based on operating costs.
