2019 appeared to mark a new beggining for the aviation market in Cape Verde. After all, the country’s flag carrier, TACV (acronym for Transportes Aéreos de Cabo Verde, Cabo Verde Airlines), was finally privatized after years of drama — the airline had long been a drain of public resources.

The buyers, associated with the management of Icelandair, wanted to apply a very known formula; a hub-and-spoke network benefitting from the country’s unique location. They had done it in Iceland and expected to do the same in Cape Verde, even use the same fleet of Boeing 757s, as Icelandair phased them out.

TACV already flew between the Brazilian Northeast and Europe via Cape Verde, but the Icelandic management team started to turn the airline towards a network that fully focused on the hub philosophy, steering the operations from Praia, which has a shorter runway, to Sal. The airline was also rebranded «Cabo Verde Airlines».

December 2019 saw them starting a new route, to Porto Alegre, Southern Brazil, the first destination that focused entirely on the hub, as relations between that part of Brazil and Cape Verde are basically nonexistent.

What happened just three months later, COVID-19, is well-known, and it shattered Cape Verde’s economy, which is focused on tourism.

It was not until December 2021 that Cabo Verde Airlines restarted its operations; this time, renationalized, after a series of misunderstandings between the Icelandic investors and Cape Verde’s government.

So one can say that this is Cape Verde’s first Summer season after COVID, as European tourists flock the beautiful islands of the country. How is the market shaping now, after two very difficult years?

With the help of Cirium’s Diio Mi application and their data from July 2022 versus July 2019, we tried sketching a picture of the market there.

The state of Cabo Verde Airlines

Taking the words from the song, Cabo Verde Airlines is not half the man it used to be. Its only aircraft is a 737-700 wet-leased from TAAG, and its network currently serves the Cape Verdian diaspora in Portugal, connecting Praia, Sal and São Vicente to Lisbon with this aircraft.

Local periodic A Nação reported in May that all 757 were returned to Icelandair but one, D4-CCG, that was grounded by the local airport operator and thus couldn’t be returned — it is now the main battleground of an imbroglio.

The picture painted by A Nação says that TACV «remains one of the public companies that drains money from public treasure the most, accumulating debts and loans, many of which to pay wages and suppliers».

So while at first thought you could think otherwise, Cabo Verde Airlines’ management has their hands tied. With low levels of cash to invest and pressure from the public, they must stick to what knowingly brings results.

And according to Cirium, this month TACV should operate just 52 flights, versus 345 in July 2019 — they are down 84.9%.

If in 2019 Cabo Verde Airlines flew 25.7% of the seats to and from its home country, it is now flying a mere 3.5%.

Other airlines are carrying the recovery

With that, TAP is currently the largest airline in Cape Verde, by seats and ASKs. The airline did not add new routes to its portfolio (Lisbon to Boa Vista, Praia, Sal and São Vicente), but it grew strongly in practically all of them.

The grow in number of seats available was of about 24.9% comparing July 2019 to July 2022.

The rest of the airlines is, in its majority, European airlines carrying tourists to the archipelago. Of all, three have dropped out compared to 2019 (ASL France, Smartwings Poland and TAAG) and there are five new entrants: Alba Star, ASKY, Corendon, Luxair and Vueling.

Routes that didn’t make it this Summer are plenty, depicting quite clearly the absence that the forced landing of TACV’s expansion plans caused.

And the current routemap reflects this trend, as there are currently no connections from Cape Verde to North and South America.

As for the new routes, the majority depicts that the rebound is carried by the European airlines.

All in all, traffic in Cape Verde in July is 29.3% down, in terms of seats, compared to the same month in 2019.

But one thing that went relatively unnoticed, given its potential of bringing growth to the numbers of the archipelago, is the arrival of Vueling in June. It’s the first low-cost carrier to arrive to the island.

Currently the airline is operating a weekly frequency from Barcelona to Sal, with an Airbus A320. The arrival of the airline marked a «»the start of a new chapter of tourism in Cape Verde», said Francisco Martins, manager of the Cape Verde Tourism Institute, to the Expresso das Ilhas periodic at the time.

He also hinted at the announcement of another European airline that should arrive to the country in October. According to Cirium, that would be Transavia France, with two weekly frequencies from Paris/Orly to Sal and a single weekly flight from Orly to Boa Vista.

So what’s next for aviation in Cape Verde?

By the looks of it, the local management has given up on trying to rely on TACV for its growth and for the assurance of connectivity of their diaspora across the globe. With that, there is enough reason to believe that their chips are directed to the new entrant low-cost carriers, Transavia and Vueling.

With this, the results of this season will be instrumental for the next. This way, the country can gather the results and show to other airlines (along with generous benefit packages) that their market has the potential to be profitable.

And, by the same token, this way they can show to the current airlines that there is more potential to be found. While a second weekly flight with Vueling may seem little, it’s potentially 180 new tourists a week spending in hotels, restaurants and bringing money to the local economy.

So if this season goes well, the next can be even better — with or without Cabo Verde Airlines.