TACV Cabo Verde Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Recently took a flight from Salvador, Brazil to Sal, Cape Verde. Thought the aircraft was an older 757-200, it was being leased from Icelandair, with updated leather seats, seat-back screens, etc. At 6'3, I had plenty of leg room. Considering the rock-bottom price I paid for the ticket, I was not really expecting much. The flight crew was efficient and friendly, the food was plentiful and (airline) tasty and they served us as much Portuguese red wine as we wanted. Looking forward to the return flight. I'll definitely fly again for future flights to Cape Verde or onward to Europe.

TACV Cabo Verde Airlines changed my flight 3 times and twice without even informing me. The only good thing about the flight was that it was cheaper than the others but still it was unacceptable. I had a flight to Natal and suddenly they cancelled that and sent me to Recife instead. First they were talking about a bus transfer, then there was not a bus transfer, and then eventually there was one. Last change of flight hour was a day before the flight. I had already booked my train ticket so I was there far too early. It was a flight of 10 hours and stopped in Amsterdam and in Faro, Portugal. This last stop was not even announced so we arrived much later in Sal. Luckily the next plane waited for us but they did not give us a new ticket, they just wrote my seat number on my last plane ticket and eventually ripped the ticket in two so I could have the seat number. I still have to go back to Paris and they have already changed this flight twice. Let's hope I will get home.

✅ Verified Review | On a tour of eight countries I had booked and paid for a return, direct flight Dakar-Praia (Cape Verde). To start with, I had been unable to check my flight online and had to call the airline office in Dakar to confirm its existence. I was further told to be at the airport four hours prior to the flight, which I did even though I had only a hand luggage. Once there I had to wait one hour and half before the check in was open. Obviously I was the first one. Then, the attendant noted that I wasn't on the flight manifesto but directed me to the counter where I was refused check in and told to wait for the person in charge with CV, who eventually turned up another thirty minutes later. He looked at my ticket, smiled and said that my flight was scheduled next week to which I answered that it was my date of return from CV. He looked again and decided that it was normal that I wasn't registered as I had bought my ticket six months earlier. I argued but he told that if I was going to get upset he couldn't do anything about it. I asked him to solve the problem rather that telling me I was in the wrong having a reserved, confirmed and paid in full ticket. He eventually called the centre, gave my eticket number: I was the checked in. The guy insisted on telling me that if my flight is not reconfirmed after three months, it is deleted from their termina . Unless I am mistaken this procedure has been abandoned decades ago, and even though, the need for reconfirmation was specified when required (or maybe it is specific to Senegal ) I boarded without any further inconvenience to find out that my two hour direct flight had been changed to a four hour trip stopping over at Sal before Praia (I had noticed that the flight number was not the same on my booking and my boarding pass) - never was contacted nor alerted whereas other airlines do send an update whenever needed. On the leg back from Praia to Dakar (I had made sure that it was the right flight and time by visiting the office in CV), no online check in either, but arrived two hours earlier, and had a smooth check in ( well, had to wait anyway as the immigration wasn't operating yet). The flight was initially scheduled at 10 PM: all passengers were left waiting until 11 PM without any information nor staff on the ground. I did approach someone (from TAP) who told me that he didn't know what happened but was aware that the plane had been delayed at Sal. I also asked an immigration officer to contact a staff, who said she was going to call someone but no one turned up until, at last, the staff appeared and opened the boarding gate. I complained about the lack of information, stressing that it was not nice to leave the people in the ignorance. They seemed surprised that no announcement had been made. The inflight experience was no thrill but the attendants were nice enough. Unacceptable behaviour on the ground and lack of organisation of a low cost company representing their country. Needless to say that it was the first and last time I was using this airline.

Pleasant flight on TACV Cabo Verde Airlines with friendly crew from Sao Vicente to Praia. Everything from check-in to arrival went smoothly. There was a small delay of 20-30 min on departure. The departure time was changed about 1 week before the flight but I got an automatic email from their system with this information.

Trip from Lisbon to Sal (via Praia) with TACV Cabo Verde Airlines, and our flight got delayed. They informed us the evening before 9pm (flight at 7am). Tried to reach the customer service for over an hour multiple times (line got disconnected) cost 100 euro (Irish phone in Lisbon). This is why we would miss our connection flight. We tried to arrange something at the airport the next morning. The lady told us that is was arranged and that her colleagues would be waiting for us on the airport in Praia (not!), asked for some conformation which she couldn't provide. Arrived on Praia - nobody knew something of our arrival. After a lot of waiting and discussions with the lady from the customer service in Praia she managed to get us on the flight to Sal. On our way back same story - flight got delayed - had to leave one day earlier. I was not happy with the extra connection flights as I have a fear of flying and take pills for nerves.

I flew TACV Cabo Verde Airlines back from Praia with an 8-week old puppy that I rescued from Boa Vista. In short, we departed 2 hours late, they were insensitive about caring for the dog, and they lost my luggage, which took over a week to be returned to me. I will not be flying with them again. I had emailed TACV weeks prior to ask for any particular details I might need to know before traveling with a dog. I got a reply to "please check our web site" (which I had already done and had found nothing useful). Anyhow, I budgeted ample time at the airport to get things arranged: going through security, paying for the puppy/crate, going from line to line, etc. Everything was going more-or-less smoothly until we got to the gate agent. I handed him my boarding pass, and he looked at me like I had two heads. "Why do you have this dog?" Evidently I was supposed to have checked the crate earlier, something no one had told me to do. "No problem, but just leave the dog there," he said, pointing to the tarmac, "and get on the plane." He wanted me to leave a puppy in the sun/heat, just before being stowed in a hot cargo hold on a 7 hour flight? I refused to move until they got a baggage handler to put the dog on the plane, which in retrospect was even more judicious than I had anticipated, since they ended up losing my luggage (but at least not the puppy). It struck me as wildly insensitive and unforgivable. Incidentally, it seems that most of my fellow passengers understood little about not crowding the boarding gate/baggage claim area, etc. as if we weren't all going to the same place and that by cutting the line they weren't going to create a bottleneck that would just make everything take longer for everyone.

My partner and I were on our honeymoon and had booked to travel to Sal Boa Vista San Vincent and back to Sal over a 2 week period. Our first flight from Sal left 30 minutes early so we arrived at Boa Vista 2 hours early only to be told the flight had gone and they had no explanation why. They offered use flights the next day which included an extra flight and would have taken all day. We lost all confidence in the company as we had arranged hotels and a ferry to fit in with our flight so we just asked for the direct flight back to Sal which was days later and stayed there the rest of our holiday.

Bissau-Dakar-Praia/Praia-Fogo island-Praia/Praia-Dakar. All flights on time international ones on leased Brazilian White Jets A320 domestic on ATR 72. Pleasant flights newish aircraft in good condition small snacks served on international legs friendly crew overall good experience at reasonable fares. No IFE available and neither necessary on such short flights.

Boston to Praia roundtrip and internally from Praia to Mindelo roundtrip. The Praia to Mindelo internal flights felt safe. TACV operates ATR-42 aircraft that seem to be new. Each flight however was delayed and other passengers grumbled that TACV is unable to maintain a schedule. Boston to Praia and Praia to Boston flights made me nervous. Each was on an old Boeing 757-200 : plane may be airworthy but the interior was dilapidated enough to impair my confidence in the aircraft. One or more lights were broken one or more armrests fell off and one or more seats needed repair. Given the aircraft's rickety interior I doubt I would fly Boston to Praia again on TACV. The food was good and ground personnel in Boston Praia and Mindelo were helpful. TACV has a number of quirks and operational problems that make it seem subpar. The Boston TACV office gave me inaccurate departure times for the Boston-Praia and Praia-Boston flights. The Boston TACV office will not accept VISA or MasterCard so unless you have American Express you have to mail them a check! The airline does not have a fully functional English/Portuguese website but only a bare-bones version with severely limited capabilities.

TACV on a very short 15 min flight from Fogo to Praia. Very pleasant experience with annoucements in Portuguese French and English. Flight on time and a nice small airport experience. TACV's internal flights are managed in a somewhat archaic yet pleasant way no yield management pricing policy which is very nice as it gives you lots of flexibility on your trip planning.