Mozambique Airlines (LAM) is planning to resume flights between Maputo and Lisbon in the first half of November.
Final negotiations are currently underway between LAM and the Portuguese airline, EuroAtlantic Airways, on the use of the latter’s Boeing 767 aircraft which has a capacity of 279 passengers.
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EuroAtlantic Airways has permanent parking facilities at Lisbon airport, which will greatly assist with the operation of the route. According to sources, the first company that LAM contacted did not have guaranteed space on the apron, a situation that delayed and led to the ending of negotiations.
In the negotiations, LAM is being supported by Fly Modern Ark, the South African company contracted by the Mozambican government to rescue LAM from technical bankruptcy and bring it into profitability.
Speaking to AIM, a representative of Fly Modern Ark, explained “We returned from Lisbon this week, and we are finalising this process. We have already identified a partner with a good aircraft and, by mid-November, we will start the route”.
According to the representative, when Fly Modern Ark and the current management of LAM decided to reopen the Maputo-Lisbon route, they were convinced that LAM had a license for the operation. It was only on arrival in Portugal to work on the project that they discovered that the licence had expired in 2012, information that had been withheld from them.
However, the source promised that “we have already started the process of obtaining a new license to fly over Portuguese airspace”.
Fly Modern Ark has a one-year contract with the government for the restructuring of LAM to make it profitable through debt reduction, the introduction of new aircraft, and an increase in passengers.
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Among recent improvements are the reduction in LAM fares of more than 30 per cent on some routes and an increase in the size of the LAM fleet with the acquisition of two Bombardier JRC 900 aircraft.
In addition, new domestic routes flying directly between various provincial capitals have been introduced and passenger numbers are up.
