Mozambique: Flights on Maputo-Quelimane route cancelled on Sunday due to aircraft malfunction

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Mozambique: Flights on Maputo-Quelimane route cancelled on Sunday due to aircraft malfunction

2:37 CAT | 14 Apr 2025

File photo: Lusa

Mozambique Airlines (LAM) yesterday again cancelled domestic flights, this time on the route between Maputo, in the south, and Quelimane, in the centre of the country, due to an aircraft malfunction, a recurring occurrence in recent weeks.

“The malfunction was detected as the aircraft was preparing to take off from Maputo International Airport. In order to guarantee the operational safety of the aircraft, it was referred to the technical team for intervention,” LAM explained in a press release.

LAM had on April 4 cancelled flights to Cape Town (South Africa) and to Tete and Quelimane in central Mozambique, also “due to the unavailability of one of the aircraft”.

For several years, the state-owned airline LAM, currently undergoing restructuring, has been facing operational problems related to a reduced fleet and lack of investment, with a number of non-fatal incidents attributed by experts to poor aircraft maintenance being recorded.

At the end of March, one of the company’s aircraft had to return to Maputo airport after hitting birds, the second such incident in a week, which also forced knock-on cancellations.

On January 31, Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique launched an attempt to contract the supply of Embraer ERJ190 and Boeing 737-700 aircraft, involving the submission of expressions of interest in the supply of aircraft by national or foreign companies or consortiums by February 7, but the results of the competition are not yet known.

A source from the airline told Lusa that this procedure did not specify the number of aircraft to be contracted, a decision which would depend on the proposals presented.

Under its current restructuring regime, LAM has maintained only Cape Town as a destination outside the country, focusing on the domestic market since February.

In January, the company returned a leased Boeing 737-300 cargo plane to Indonesia after a year of it standing idle due to the lack of national certification and recognition of the aircraft’s modifications by the manufacturer, the aviation regulatory authority previously confirmed.

“It was found that not all the documents required for this type of certification were complete,” João de Abreu, the chairman of the board of directors of the Civil Aviation Institute of Mozambique (IACM), said.

João de Abreu confirmed that the cargo plane, which remained in Mozambique from December 31, 2023 to January 18, 2025, did not operate in Mozambique due to the lack of national certification, adding that it was also subject to modification from a passenger aircraft to a cargo aircraft without the knowledge of the manufacturer.

Source: Lusa