Former TAAG Angola leader returns to role following Emirates pull-out

Former chairman and CEO of TAAG Angola, Joaquim Teixeira da Cunha, has been reinstated to his old posts following the sudden departure from the carrier of the Emirates Airline management team.

Dubai-based Emirates ended its 10-year management contract with the African carrier in July after only two years when Emirates was unable to repatriate substantial funds from its Angola operations. Emirates cut its daily Dubai-Luanda service to 3X-weekly because of its earnings being blocked.

As a consequence, Emirates ended its management contract with TAAG Angola, and chairman & CEO Peter Hill and several management team members returned to Dubai.

In a July 26 letter seen by ATW, da Cunha said the Angolan government had set up an interim management committee to oversee the airline in the run-up to Angolan elections in late August.

The committee is chaired by da Cunha and includes two deputies, the previous deputy CEO of Angola’s aviation regulator INAVIC  Rui Carreira and TAAG CCO William Boulter.

All other expatriates appointed by Emirates will retain their positions and CFO Vipula Gunatilleka also remains in post, as well as becoming a member of the interim management committee.

Da Cunha noted that the airline had “come through the unexpected withdrawal of Emirates without much material change in our senior management. We are very confident that the great advances TAAG has made in the past two years will be sustained.”