TACV operates to USA and Brazil only after recovering ETOPS - Government

When asked when TACV will start flying to the United States of America, José Luís Sá Nogueira said that the government is interested in the national airline connecting the Cape Verdean diaspora to their homeland and that the USA is an "important objective, due to the nature of our (resident) community".

José Luís Sá Nogueira declined to give a date for the national airline to obtain ETOPS, because, he stressed, in civil aviation there are a number of variables that are part of the equation, which is "complex".

"There are variables that we don't control and there are variables that we do control," he pointed out.

José Luís Sá Nogueira, who was speaking to the press on the sidelines of the aeronautical medical conference taking place in Praia, admitted that the flag carrier had lost ETOPS because it had been "practically two years without operating".

"In civil aviation, when you don't operate for a long time, you almost have to start all over again, in terms of the technical-operational requirements," said the minister in charge of the government's transport department.

TACV, said the minister, has recovered flights to Europe, but when it comes to flights that involve crossing the Atlantic, where it is necessary to have what is called an intermittent airport, "it is necessary for the crew to be prepared once again and for the technical and operational conditions to be submitted to the civil aeronautics authority".

According to him, there still needs to be "coordination with the US and Brazilian aviation authorities to resume flights based on ETOPS".

"ETOPS is won and lost at the same time because of this security situation," Sá Nogueira pointed out, adding that he has information according to which, "many of the processes inherent in the preparation of ETOPS have already been completed".

Inforpress/End