LAM to resume flights to Lisbon in June – AIM report

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LAM to resume flights to Lisbon in June – AIM report

7:49 CAT | 26 Feb 2020

Photo: LAM

Mozambique Airlines (LAM) will resume flights between Maputo and Lisbon as from June, the company’s general manager, Po Jorge, announced at a Maputo press conference on Tuesday.

There will be three flights a week, he said – from Maputo to Lisbon on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and from Lisbon to Maputo on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. These will all be night flights.

LAM will use an Airbus A330-200, with a capacity for 269 seats (251 in economy class and 18 in business class). The inaugural flight will be from Lisbon on 2 June, arriving in Maputo the following morning.

Jorge said LAM had always been interested in resuming flights on the Maputo-Lisbon route, believing that there is a ready market for such flights among the Mozambican diaspora in Portugal, and Portuguese citizens with business or family ties with Mozambique.

“We intend to serve this market”, said Jorge. Currently the Maputo-Lisbon route is only served by the Portuguese airline, TAP.

“We want to reach a point where we and TAP can share the market between us, so that there can be daily flights”, he added.

The Airbus is owned by the Portuguese company Hi Fly. The details of the arrangement between LAM and Hi Fly are not yet clear. Jorge described it as a partnership, which would include financial support to guarantee sustainable operations, “since we are not interested in operating flights that are not sustainable”, said Jorge.

As for how much LAM will charge for tickets on this route, Jorge promised “competitive prices”.

The only direct competitor on this route is TAP – but passengers from Maputo going to other European cities now have considerable choice. They can fly via Johannesburg, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Doha or Istanbul. If LAM wants to win part of this market, it will have to offer prices that are much cheaper than TAP’s.

LAM flights to Lisbon should have resumed in late March, but the need for parking space at Lisbon airport forced a postponement.

Source: AIM