Inter-island air connectivity of contrails

The current reality has nothing to do with February 6, 2022 when BF started flying with two (2) ATR72s. “Now with two planes we already have a fleet and for now it will do the same flights that the others did, divide the flights, the program we have at the moment will be fulfilled and then depending on the demand and capacity we will meet the requests” , said Armando Borges, General Director of the company at the time.

In the same statement, he added that the company was negotiating the acquisition of two DHC Twin Otter aircraft, with capacity for 19 passengers, to increase this capacity. “Then we will have routes to destinations with less frequencies such as Maio and Fogo and increase weekly frequencies as we have a lot of demand”, he said.

Two years later, one of the ATRs cannibalized the other, there are no new reports or warrants for the Twin-Otters and air links between the islands continue to be in an embarrassing situation. Are there steps further down? There is!!!! Let’s hope we don’t wake up and face this “worst”.

In the very short term (we are talking about 24 hours or less), TACV will perhaps be the lifeline in connections to islands where there are international airports, leaving Maio, S.Nicolau and Fogo waiting for contingency solutions. As things stand there will hardly be guarantees for Bestly's continuity and we can only hope that the Government puts aside “the leaks ahead” and quickly thinks of consistent and lasting solutions. As it is difficult to escape a solution of public intervention in the domestic airline sector, it will only be economically and socially viable if the sector is liberalized (de facto), if the Public Service Obligation (OSP) is not exclusive and if domestic tourist activity is not is affected.