Mozambican airline LAM plans to launch regular flights to Guangzhou, China, by July, its general manager Theunis Crous said.
“We expect to start to Dubai and to China, Guangzhou, in the next three months. In June or July,” Crous told Lusa in Maputo. “The company is stabilizing”, the manager stressed.
Crous is also the general manager of South African Fly Modern Ark (FMA), appointed by the Mozambican government in April last year to undergo the restructuring of LAM.
The Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, Amilton Alissone, recalled the previous decision, to intervene in the management of LAM, wholly owned by the State, with the aim of “stabilizing the company to avoid progressive losses”, while “the best assessment for a decision on the future of the company in the long term”.
“As a result of the deep work developed with the carefully identified partner (…) the reality of the company shows signs of improvement, transmitting confidence that the decision taken was the most accurate”, emphasized Alissone.
He added that “safe steps are being taken towards the stabilization of the company”, and “progress has been achieved” in recent months, such as “increasing the fleet” in service, “improving its ability to respond to market demand, increasing domestic frequencies, opening new routes and reopening others”.
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He also stressed the “ 30% reduction of tariffs for some destinations”, which “is promoting the improvement of access to air transport services in the country, dynamizing, as a consequence, tourism, among other economic gains”.
LAM operates regular passenger flights to the 10 province capitals of the country and to the Mozambican cities of Vilanculos and Nacala. At the regional level, it also flies to Johannesburg and Cape Town (South Africa), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Harare (Zimbabwe) and Lusaka (Zambia), and plans to launch flights to Lilongwe (Malaysia) and Nairobi (Kenya).
LAM also flies three times a week to Lisbon, since last December, the only intercontinental destination that it currently operates.
