Turkish Airlines drops Luanda as Angola’s new airport struggles
Turkish Airlines Ends Luanda Service as Angola’s New Airport Seeks Momentum
Poinews.com – Turkish Airlines has removed Luanda from its long-term network, adding to the pressure on Angola’s new international gateway as it works to attract more passengers and airline partners.
The Istanbul-based carrier had paused flights to the Angolan capital until 24 October, but Luanda has now disappeared from future schedules. Juba, Kinshasa, Libreville and Lusaka were also withdrawn in the same network adjustment. When the changes were announced in April, Turkish Airlines presented the Luanda suspension as a temporary measure linked to fuel costs.
Its Luanda operation had not been a nonstop Istanbul service. Instead, the airline used a triangular routing through Kinshasa. Even so, the connection gave travellers in Angola access to Turkish Airlines’ extensive Istanbul hub, with onward options across Europe, Asia and other regions.
A difficult period for Luanda’s international links
Turkish Airlines is not the only international operator to step back from Luanda in recent years. Brussels Airlines ended its route on 25 March 2025 during restructuring within the Lufthansa Group. Passengers were redirected to Lufthansa’s direct Frankfurt–Luanda service, preserving a connection to the German carrier’s hub while removing the Brussels Airlines operation.
Angola’s flag carrier, TAAG Angola Airlines, suspended its Madrid route in January 2024. The service had been operated under a codeshare arrangement with Iberia, and a proposed return was later taken out of TAAG’s timetable.
Iberia had already suspended its own Luanda flights in 2016 and did not restore them. From 2022, it instead relied on the partnership with TAAG. With TAAG’s Madrid service no longer operating, that link has also disappeared. South African Airways continues to place its code on flights flown by TAAG rather than operating the route itself.
For passengers, the changes underline the importance of connections through the airlines that still serve Luanda. A smaller selection of direct international services can make hub links especially significant for business travellers, families and passengers continuing to other African, European, Middle Eastern or Asian destinations.
An airport built for far greater traffic
The route withdrawals coincide with a crucial early phase for Dr António Agostinho Neto International Airport, located roughly 45 kilometres from central Luanda. The airport was opened in November 2023 with the ambition of becoming a major regional hub, but the gradual move from the former Quatro de Fevereiro airport took much longer than the inauguration itself.
The facility was built by AVIC, a Chinese state-owned company, and was designed to accommodate up to 15 million passengers a year. Its current traffic remains well below that level. ATO, the airport’s temporary operator, recorded 756,028 passengers during 2025.
By 24 February this year, passenger traffic since the first domestic flight in November 2024 had reached 1,090,861. That total included 444,212 international travellers. The numbers illustrate both the airport’s growing use and the considerable distance still separating present activity from its intended annual capacity.
The final transfer from Quatro de Fevereiro was completed on 1 March, more than two years after the new airport was inaugurated. The last key step came when Airlink moved its Johannesburg flights to Dr António Agostinho Neto International Airport.
Ambitious targets for 2026
ATO has set a substantially higher traffic goal for the year ahead. In December 2025, Director of Planning and Quality Vissolela Chivunda said the airport expected to handle about 4 million passengers in 2026.
“Around 4 million passengers in 2026.”
Reaching that level would require a marked rise in activity compared with the airport’s 2025 total. The transition to a single main airport for Luanda’s commercial services may help concentrate traffic at the new site, but airline network decisions will remain an important factor in its development.
Luanda still retains a broad group of international airlines. TAP Air Portugal, Air France, Lufthansa, Royal Air Maroc, Ethiopian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Airlink and TAAG continue to serve the city. Compagnie Africaine d’Aviation also entered the market with two weekly Kinshasa flights beginning on 21 August.
Those remaining services keep Luanda connected to several major aviation hubs: Lisbon, Paris, Frankfurt, Casablanca, Addis Ababa, Doha and Johannesburg. They also sustain regional links within central and southern Africa, a necessary foundation for an airport intended to play a larger role beyond Angola’s domestic market.
The end of Turkish Airlines’ service does not erase Luanda’s international connectivity, but it removes one more route through a global hub at a sensitive time. For the new airport, the next challenge is turning its physical scale and strategic ambition into consistently stronger airline demand, higher passenger volumes and a more durable position in the regional network.
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