Mozambique and France sign agreement on air services

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Mozambique and France sign agreement on air services

6:46 CAT | 04 May 2017

Noticias

The Mozambican and French governments signed an agreement on air services in Maputo on Wednesday.

Signed by Transport Minister Carlos Mesquita and French ambassador Bruno Clerc, the agreement creates the legal basis for regular air links between the two countries.

For the Mozambican government, the agreement is “an unequivocal example that our air space is open to air companies from all over the world, as long as they comply with the established mechanisms”, said Mesquita.

He hoped that air links between Mozambique and France would encourage French businesses to invest in Mozambique.

Mesquita explained that the agreement covers flights between the two countries, and is not an invitation for French companies to operate Mozambican domestic routes. “To fly within Mozambique, a different type of licensing agreement would be necessary”, he said.

As far as Mesquita was aware, no French company is currently interested in flying from Europe to Mozambique – but he hoped the agreement might spark off such an interest.

De Clerc said the agreement would allow aircraft of each country to overfly the other, and make technical stops. But the main purpose was to establish regular flights. He said authorizations would be issued quickly, and certificates of airworthiness and fitness licences will be mutually recognized by the Mozambican and French civil aviation authorities.

French and Mozambican air companies “may conclude commercial agreements to enter into alliance in this very competitive sector”, added the ambassador, stressing that the agreement also covers “cooperation in air protection and security, in accordance with international and European norms”.

Mozambique Airlines (LAM) used to fly the Maputo-Paris route. The planes flew to Paris, and then on to Copenhagen and Berlin, and a key purpose of these flights was to serve the large community of Mozambicans working in what was then the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

But no planes have flown the route for the past couple of decades. Currently, the only direct flights from Maputo to Europe are operated by TAP (the Portuguese airline) to Lisbon.

Flights between Mozambique and France did not necessarily mean Paris, said de Clerc. French territory also includes the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, and one Reunion-based company, Air Austral, is interested in establishing regular flights between Saint-Denis and Maputo.

One serious problem is that all Mozambican air companies are on the European Union’s black list and are banned from entering European airspace. This is a problem arising from defects, not in the air companies themselves, but in the failure of the Mozambican regulatory body, the Mozambique Civil Aviation Institute (IACM), to satisfy EU requirements.

Mesquita, cited in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, said that the black list was discussed at a meeting in Brussels last week with the EU Air Safety Committee.

“We made our approach after an audit in February”, said Mesquita, “and we are waiting for results at the end of May”. That would determine whether Mozambique remained on the black list.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario confirmed on Wednesday in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, that the government is seeking a “strategic partner” for LAM.

“The process has begun to identify a strategic partner for joint operation, in order to improve operational capacity, allowing LAM to respond to the current challenges”, he said.

A partnership with a major international airline can turn round the fortunes of a struggling company, as the Angolan company TAAG has shown through its partnership with the Emirates Airline.

The government has not revealed which airlines it has approached, but according to the independent daily “O Pais”, the government has been in discussions with Ethiopian Airlines.

Source: AIM