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SonAir

SonAir Airline Services, S.A. (Portuguese: SonAir Serviço Aéreo, S.A.), commonly known as SonAir was established as DAR (Direcção de Aeronaútica) on 10 October 1979,[1] is a venture of the Angolan national petroleum company Sonangol Group.

SonAir
IATA ICAO Call sign
- SOR SONAIR
Founded10 October 1979
HubsQuatro de Fevereiro Airport
Fleet size42
Destinations4
Parent companySonangol Group
HeadquartersLuanda, Angola
Key people
  • Sebastiao Gaspar Martins (Chairman)
  • Alfredo Manuel Varo Kaputu (Chief Executive Officer)
Websitewww.sonair.co.ao

Operations

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It provides helicopter services to Angolan oil facilities, both onshore and offshore, as well as scheduled and charter services within Africa and to the United States.[2]

Domestically they also provide air transportation to several business groups - private and government, outside the oil business.[3] The company was also the first to provide direct transportation of passengers and cargo between Angola and the United States. Until 2018, the airline provided thrice-weekly services between Luanda (LAD) and Houston (IAH) utilizing a Boeing 747-400 (10 First Class, 143 Business Class, some of which were marketed as a Premium Economy with a lesser amenity service, and 36 Economy Class seats) operated by Atlas Air.[citation needed][4] In Angola, SonAir is once again investing in its fleet after several years of impasse over the company's future. In a first phase, the Sonangol subsidiary was included in the privatization program announced in 2019, while several strategic changes and a program to refound the largest company in the country were introduced. This caused some internal ripples because Sonangol's Board of Directors argued that supporting the oil industry is a profitable business.

These decisions also led to the separation of the functions of concessionaire (which are now under the responsibility of ANPG - National Oil and Gas Agency) and operator. It was also established that Sonangol would focus mainly on its core business (research, production and distribution of oil and derivatives). In this context, the market for the provision of air transport services to the oil industry was liberalized, putting an end to the monopoly, which led to the entry of new players in this segment. After avoiding the closure of the company, Sonair is now looking to reinforce its operations in a context of greater internal competition.[5]

Destinations

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As of May 2018 SonAir operated scheduled flights to the following destinations:[6][7][8]

Angola

Fleet

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As of February 2015 the Sonair fleet included:[9]

Fixed wing

Helicopters:

The fleet included the following aircraft (as of August 2019):[11]

Former fleet

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The airline previously operated the following aircraft:

  • 4 further De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter[12]

See also

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  • Gazpromavia, an airline based in Moscow, Russia that operates passenger and cargo charters, mainly in support of the oil and gas industry

References

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  1. ^ "DAR (Direcção de Aeronaútica)". Airline History. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  2. ^ "China Sonangol International Airlines". CAPA Centre for Aviation. Archived from the original on March 1, 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  3. ^ Sonangol Group, Sonangol Group. "Sonair encomenda dois helicópteros a multinacional italiana". expansao.co.ao (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  4. ^ "Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings". atlasair.com. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  5. ^ "Sonangol resgata a subsidiária SonAir". Jornal de Angola (in Portuguese). 2018-08-02. Archived from the original on 2022-12-19. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
  6. ^ "Atlas Air Selected To Operate Premium Charter Service Between Houston and Luanda, Angola". Retrieved: 15 June 2010
  7. ^ 2013 timetable, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-13. Retrieved 2014-05-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ "Luanda, Angola International Airport Flight Route and Airlines Information". angolaairport.net. Archived from the original on 2018-02-22.
  9. ^ "ATDB.aero aerotransport.org AeroTransport Data Bank". aerotransport.org. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  10. ^ SonAir fleet at Helis.com
  11. ^ "Global Airline Guide 2019 (Part One)". Airliner World (October 2019): 4.
  12. ^ "Global Airline Guide 2016 (Part One)". Airliner World (October 2018): 4.
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