Mozambique: Nyusi inaugurates Gaza airport – AIM | Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Nyusi inaugurates Gaza airport – AIM | Watch

8:43 CAT | 01 Dec 2021

Photo: Jornal Moçambique

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Monday inaugurated a new airport in Chonguene district, in the southern province of Gaza, which has been baptised with his name.

Nyusi seemed to dislike the fact that he was inaugurating an airport that bears his name. “You should imagine how embarrassing it is to inaugurate an economic infrastructure which has been given my name, particularly when I know that the proponents are aware of how I feel about this kind of procedure”, he told the inauguration ceremony.

He did not say who these proponents are – but they must be senior figures in the ruling Frelimo Party, if Nyusi was really unable to overrule them (although the independent newssheet “Mediafax” dismisses Nyusi’s embarrassment as a mere pretense).

Nyusi said that building the airport did not plunge the Mozambican state into any further debt. That is because the more than 60 million US dollars it cost was paid for by a grant from the Chinese government.

🇨🇳✈️🇲🇿China’s infrastructure aid to Mozambique in southeast #Africa

✈️China-aided Xai-Xai Airport project was officially handed over to #Mozambique to boost the country’s social and economic development.

The new airport has a designed annual passenger throughput of 220,000. pic.twitter.com/3QMIv9OwZh

— Shen Shiwei沈诗伟 (@shen_shiwei) November 30, 2021

The Chonguene airport covers an area of 3,400 square metres and it has the capacity to accommodate 200,000 passengers a year.

It is the first sizeable airport ever built in Gaza, which was previously the only province in the country without an airport.

Nyusi claimed the airport will catapult the development of Gaza. “Building this airport is an integral part of our programme for the economic development of Mozambique”, he said. “The airport we inaugurate today will stimulate development and the transport of people and goods, from the viewpoint of complementarity between various infrastructures”.

It is believed that tourism will be the main beneficiary from the new airport. Gaza has 105 kilometres of largely pristine beaches and several major wildlife reserves.

The major market for tourism in Gaza is South Africa. But how many South African tourists will leave their cars at home and pay for a flight to Chonguene instead? The initial return flight from Maputo to Chonguene cost 13,800 meticais (about 216 US dollars, at current exchange rates). The general director of Mozambique Airlines, Po Jorge, insisted that, when LAM runs scheduled flights to Chonguene, the prices will be much lower.

Furthermore, tourist operators hoping to benefit from the new airport will have to run buses from Chonguene to resorts such as Bilene beach or the Limpopo National Park.

In 2018, Gaza received 114,591 tourists, of whom 47,250 were foreign tourists. Most of the South African tourists would have driven all the way. Tourists from elsewhere would have flown to Maputo, and then made their way into Gaza by road.

The new airport has a relatively short runway. It will be able to take planes carrying around 70 passengers. Simple mathematics shows that, to reach 200,000 passengers, with this type of plane, will require 2,857 flights – that is eight flights a day. So far the only airline certain to use the Chonguene airport is LAM.

If the demand exists, the runway can be extended to take Boeings and other larger planes.

Nyusi admitted that the new airport could not become sustainable solely on the basis of tourism.

Cargo flights would be another possibility – but Gaza is essentially an agricultural province, and it would be prohibitively expensive to transport most agricultural products by air.

Nonetheless Nyusi was optimistic that agriculture and fisheries, plus transport facilities could influence rapid economic growth in Gaza, which would open space for the country’s integration in the country, in the southern African region and the world.

The President was optimistic that there will now be a string of new investments in Chonguene district, including hotels, new transport companies and other services. “We are challenging all service providers to bank on the investments which may be necessary because of the appearance of these new infrastructures here in Chonguene”, he stressed.

The last airport built in Mozambique was Nacala International Airport in the northern province of Nampula. Inaugurated in 2014 by Nyusi’s predecessor, Armando Guebuza, it has always run at a heavy loss, and has never attracted any international airlines.

When this airport was built, it was imagined that Nacala could be a hub linking southern Africa to the Gulf states. But no Gulf airline has shown the slightest interest in Nacala. Anyone wishing to fly to Nacala must take the LAM flight from Maputo.