Flight ban triggers food price rise in central Angola

Angola’s decision to prohibit civil flights by Antonov planes has triggered a sharp rise in the prices of food and other daily necessities in the central part of the country, an official from the Angolan press centre said on Tuesday. Angola’s central provinces depend on food and other necessities being transported by air from the coastal areas. Many roads are impassable or too dangerous to use because of the ongoing civil war.

The Angolan National Civil Aviation directorate ordered that all Angolan civil air flight operations involving Russia-made Antonov airplanes be suspended countrywide as from 15 November The decision followed two consecutive crashes of Antonov planes. They occurred respectively in late October in the eastern province of Lunda-Sul and in mid November on the outskirts of the Angolan capital Luanda.