Turkish Airlines drops Luanda route as Angola's new airport struggles to attract traffic

Turkish Airlines has removed Luanda from its upcoming flight schedule, permanently ending the route along with services to Juba, Kinshasa, Libreville and Lusaka. All of these connections had already been suspended through 24 October, a pause the Istanbul-based carrier announced in April, blaming high fuel costs and describing it at the time as temporary. Turkish Airlines flew to Luanda via a triangular service through Kinshasa, but the link still gave Angolan travellers onward connections to Europe, Asia and beyond through Istanbul.

The airline is not alone in stepping back from Angola's capital. Brussels Airlines dropped its Luanda route on 25 March 2025 as part of a wider restructuring inside the Lufthansa Group, shifting passengers onto Lufthansa's direct Frankfurt–Luanda flights. Angola's own carrier, TAAG, suspended a Madrid route it operated as a codeshare with Iberia back in January 2024 and later dropped the planned resumption entirely. Iberia has not restored its own direct flights to Luanda since suspending them in 2016, and its codeshare arrangement with TAAG has now also ended.

New airport still short of targets

The wave of withdrawals coincides with ongoing struggles at Angola's Dr António Agostinho Neto International Airport, located roughly 45km outside central Luanda. Built by Chinese state firm AVIC and inaugurated in November 2023 with capacity for up to 15 million passengers a year, the airport served just over 756,000 passengers in 2025. Between its first domestic flight in November 2024 and 24 February this year, it recorded just over one million total passengers, of which about 444,000 were international travellers. The transition of all flights from the old Quatro de Fevereiro airport was only completed on 1 March, when South African carrier Airlink relocated its Johannesburg service. Airport operator ATO has said it expects around 4 million passengers in 2026. Carriers still serving Luanda include TAP Air Portugal, Air France, Lufthansa, Royal Air Maroc, Ethiopian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Airlink and TAAG.