TAAG Angola Airlines (DT, Luanda 4 De Fevereiro) will retire its fleet of three B737-200s - two B737-200Advs and one B737-200(M) - during the course of next year owing to ongoing maintenance issues. Speaking to the Angolan state newswire, Angop, TAAG Director of Public Relations, Carlos Vicente, said that while the three aircraft - D2-TBO (msn 22776), D2-TBX (msn 23351), and D2-TBC (msn 21173) - have experienced significant downtime at Luanda 4 De Fevereiro, their ruggedness had allowed TAAG to serve some of Angola's cruder airfields such as Menongue, Saurimo, and Luena.

"While the modernization of the fleet is an ongoing process, the B737-200's more powerful engines - compared to the new fleet - allowed it to operate on runways under conditions where the B737-700 could not," he said.

While the rest of TAAG's fleet has been removed from the European Union's blacklist, the three -200s have remained resulting in the Angolan carrier's presence on Annex B (Carriers whose operations with in the EU are subject to operational restrictions.)

TAAG operates six B737-700(M)s on domestic Angolan services as well as flights to Bangui, Brazzaville, Cape Town International, Douala, Harare International, Lusaka, Praia, São Tome, and Windhoek International. The airline also operates a growing fleet of B777s including three B777-200(ER)s and three B777-300ERs.