"We have learned that the airline TAP - Air Portugal, has been misleadingly informing passengers with permission to enter Angolan territory issued by the competent authority, the Multi-sector Commission for the Prevention and Fight against the Covid-19 Pandemic, by refusing to board them on the different flights, alleging lack of permission from this National Institute, which is not true," says INAVIC in a statement.
Angola's borders have been closed since 20 March, but it has allowed cargo and humanitarian flights, carried out by TAP and Angolan TAAG, to take foreigners back to their countries of origin or allow the return of passengers whose entry is dependent on government authorizations.
INAVIC stresses that the public calamity situation, due to the covid-19 pandemic, allows 'only humanitarian repatriation flights to be carried out' and states that it has received several complaints relating to TAP 'which, under humanitarian flights, has carried out flights of a commercial nature'.
"It is not acceptable for TAP to use the good name of INAVIC as a justification for the failures that have occurred in the management and scheduling of flights, which have been authorised through diplomatic channels, let alone to justify this procedure in view of the publication in the Diário da República of Presidential Decree 212/20 of 7 August, which only updated the measures to prevent and control the spread of covid-19, which is in force during the state of public calamity," the entity states.
According to the new rules, Angolans and foreigners living in Angola, who return to the country, will have to carry a molecular biology test with a negative result and may choose to do home quarantine, while non-resident foreigners continue to be forced to comply with institutional quarantine.
In the communiqué, INAVIC repudiates the "lack of accuracy of the information transmitted by TAP" and asks the company to safeguard "the rights of authorized passengers, once they have purchased their tickets from it and, requests that measures be taken so that similar situations do not occur again, under penalty of sanctioning measures provided for in the aeronautical regulations in force".
INAVIC also called for "rigour and good practice in the defence of the common interest", at a time when "the world aviation industry and the flag carriers of the two countries in particular face unprecedented challenges".
