Malfunction of equipment denigrates Maputo International Airport – Carta

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Malfunction of equipment denigrates Maputo International Airport – Carta

7:45 CAT | 15 Apr 2021

File photo: Noticias

The failure of essential equipment at Maputo International Airport is constraining services provided there.

In mid-March, “Carta” received reports of various equipment malfunctioning. We went to the site and found that, in fact, most of the elevators and escalators do not work.

‘Carta’ also found that passenger boarding bridges had stopped working years ago.

Until the first half of March, the airport’s control tower and core room were without air conditioning. However, in an interview with the newspaper, the spokesperson for the company Aeroportos de Moçambique, Saíde Júnior, said that that problem had been addressed, explaining that the delay in replacing the equipment was due to issues of public procurement being particularly time consuming.

“With regard to passenger boarding bridges, there are unfortunately almost no companies capable of repairing them. They were installed when the airport was built. When they broke down, we reported it, and at the moment the parts are being made at the factory in China. We had hoped that all the bridges would be functioning last November, but unfortunately, the pandemic crisis intervened. The last communication we had with the Chinese company is that the parts will be produced by May, and Chinese technicians will then arrive to do the repairs,” Júnior explained.

To avoid the delays in repairing the boarding bridges in future, Aeroportos de Moçambique intends to use its own staff to repair them, and the Chinese technicians will train them when they are here, repairing.

“In relation to elevators and moving walkways and escalators, ditto. The pieces of that equipment are produced outside the country. We had spare parts, but they were used and, unfortunately, there was no replacement, because the supplier closed in the crisis. But now that things have started up again, we have placed orders,” the spokesperson said.

Júnior acknowledged that the repairs were taking time, because of the pandemic in which the world remains immersed, but said he was aware that it was necessary to replace damaged equipment, and that “the maintenance of equipment at airports occupies a top position in the company’s priorities”.

By Evaristo Chilingue

Source: Carta de Moçambique