"The company sent a communication informing passengers of the cancellation of flights in Angola, however, by mistake, instead of the communication to passengers make reference to the pandemic covid-19 and consequent restrictions defined by law, made mistaken reference to INAVIC," said the company's source in response to Lusa agency.
The National Institute of Civil Aviation (INAVIC) accused TAP of refusing to board passengers allowed to enter Angola on Friday, and sent a formal protest to the carrier, admitting to taking "sanctioning measures.
"We have learned that the airline TAP - Air Portugal, has been misleadingly informing passengers with permission to enter Angolan territory issued by the competent entity for this purpose, the Multi-sectoral Commission for Prevention and Combating the Covid-19 Pandemic, by refusing to board them on the different flights, alleging lack of authorization from this National Institute, which is not true," says INAVIC in a statement.
In its response to the Lusa agency, TAP regretted and asked for "sincere apologies" for what happened.
"By retracting the error made, TAP has already corrected the information to be sent to passengers, no longer containing any reference to INAVIC," he said.
The company explained that due to the necessary flight reorganisation as part of the authorities' response to the covid-19 pandemic, TAP was unable to respond to many of its passengers' journeys and cancelled flights on some of its routes.
"TAP continues to work hard to ensure that all passengers who meet the legal requirements in force are transported, and as in the past, it relies on the helpful cooperation it has always had from INAVIC, regretting and apologising for the wrong communication," it stressed.
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 authorization.
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'.
According to the new rules, Angolans and foreigners living in Angola, who return to the country, will have to carry out a molecular biology test with a negative result and may choose to do home quarantine, while non-resident foreigners continue to be forced to do institutional quarantine.
In the communiqué, INAVIC repudiates the "lack of accuracy of the information transmitted by TAP" and asked 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 adopting sanctioning measures provided for in the aeronautical regulations in force".
