DALLAS — Cabo Verde Airlines (VR), the flag carrier owned by the Cape Verdean State, announced this Friday, April 7, that it will have a second aircraft in its fleet, a leased Boeing 737-8 MAX.

“Cabo Verde Airlines wants, once again, to give voice to its customers, and for that reason, we are launching a public voting campaign to choose the name of our newest Boeing 737-8 MAX,” announced the VR, allowing customers to choose the official name of the type.

Among the names “suggested” by employees in public voting through the company's social networks were “Cidade Velha,” a place classified as World Heritage, “Morabeza,” in an allusion to the Cape Verdean welcome, and “Esperança,” hope.

The aircraft will arrive in July this year, leased "directly" from Boeing, as learned by Cape Verdean news agency Inforpress from a company source. The contract has already been signed, and the aircraft is currently in the process of being painted in the colors of the Cape Verdean airline.

Cabo Verde Airlines

Cabo Verde Airlines was established in 1958. In July 1975, following the independence of Cape Verde, the airline was designated as the national carrier and became a public (state-owned) company in 1983.

Post-pandemic, VR resumed operations initially with flights only between Praia and Lisbon, at the end of December 2021. With only one aircraft, flights were extended in 2022 from the islands of São Vicente and Sal to the Portuguese capital.

The Cape Verdean Minister of Transport and Tourism stated last November that, since the resumption, VR, renationalized in 2021, has already transported – until then – 28,000 passengers and that negotiations were underway to rent a second aircraft to connect to Boston.

“The operation to Boston and the operation to Brazil are part of [VR's] plan for the near future. We are making a huge effort (...), the Government has been giving support and injecting money into the company to be able to connect the company with the diaspora, to be able to bring and encourage this interconnection with the diaspora more and more, in the midst of all this turbulence,” said minister Carlos Santos, when answering questions from deputies in parliament.

Santos added that VR was negotiating with leasing companies in the sector for the supply of a second aircraft, to be added to the Boeing 737-700 (this one flying with VR's AOC and registration D4-CCI) rented since March 2022 by the Cape Verdean flag company to the Angolan counterpart VR, which ensures connections from Cape Verde to Portugal.

This second aircraft, he clarified, will make it possible to resume connections with Boston, in the US, where the largest Cape Verdean community in the diaspora resides, but also with Brazil and France.

Featured image: Cabo Verde Airlines D4-CCF Boeing 757-236. Photo: Alberto Cucini/Airways