Nyusi inaugurates modernisation of Maputo airport

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Nyusi inaugurates modernisation of Maputo airport

8:06 CAT | 27 Oct 2017

TVM

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday inaugurated the new manoeuvring area and rehabilitated runway at Maputo International Airport, which raises the airport’s installed capacity from one million to five million passengers a year.

The airport now fully satisfies the operational requirements of the largest of commercial aircraft, such as the Airbus 380.

The work consisted of building a new parking area for aircraft, and equipment to serve the cargo terminal; the rehabilitation of the main runway and the repaving of the runway along its entire length of 3,660 metres; the rehabilitation and repaving of the 1,700 metre long secondary runway; the repaving and expansion of taxiways to accommodate large aircraft.

A new runway lighting system has been installed, as well as an autonomous visual guideway system for parking aircraft, the signposting of areas of movement, and illumination of the cargo terminal parking platform.

At the inauguration ceremony, Nyusi said that Maputo airport is now one of the most modern airports in Africa, offering high standards of safety and efficiency. There is now complete isolation of the fuel supply system from any areas where passengers may be walking.

“The airport now meets all the requirements for its international certification”, he said. “It is in accordance with the audits of the most demanding air companies in the world”.

With the conclusion of this work, the President added, Maputo airport can respond fully to the government’s decision to encourage other local and foreign companies to operate domestic routes in Mozambican airspace.

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Nyusi urged the publicly-owned Mozambican Airports Company (ADM) to manage these facilities with great responsibility, strictly observing maintenance requirements. That meant that ADM must invest continually in the upgrading and professional training of its staff.

The company, he added, “must be more pro-active and aggressive in attracting domestic and international traffic, in order to exploit to the full the installed capacity”.

Work on the runways and manoeuvring areas was jointly financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), with 44 million and 20 million US dollars respectively. The rehabilitation and modernisation work was done by the French company Razel-BEC.

French ambassador Bruno Clerc said he was proud that “French cooperation could accompany the country in developing these strategic infrastructures. This project will strengthen the institutional capacities of ADM through developing a master plan for the country’s main airports for the next 15 to 20 years”.

With the modernisation, Clerk believed that Maputo can become a regional and international aviation hub.

Source: AIM