Mozambique: First LAM flight to Cape Town , flag carrier eyes Brazil, China and India routes

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Mozambique: First LAM flight to Cape Town , flag carrier eyes Brazil, China and India routes

2:15 CAT | 13 Dec 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Torre News]

Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) plans to move forward with connections to Brazil, China and India in 2024, the state-owned company announced this Tuesday, at the debut of flights between Maputo and Cape Town.

“It is a possibility, and our strategic plan next year to operate to at least two to three intercontinental destinations (in addition to Lisbon, which also started today),” said LAM’s commercial director, Firmino Naftal, in statements to journalists at Cape Town International Airport.

The Mozambican airline today launched its first flight between Maputo and Cape Town, with three flights a week, a connection that, through other companies, currently handles more than 200,000 passengers per year. Cape Town airport alone saw the debut of seven new international routes this year, including LAM’s.

“It will unite the two countries, through the two cities,” Naftal said of LAM’s new connection to one of the most important cities in Southern Africa.

Next year, LAM’s hopes to move forward with connections from Maputo to São Paulo (Brazil), Mumbai (India) and Guangzhou (China), according to the company’s commercial director, who presented the strategy to South-South tour operators yesterday.

“Now we have launched these two routes (Cape Town and Lisbon), which we hope that they will be well consolidated by April, before moving forward with the next ones,” Naftal added.

LAM already has a team in Malawi organising flights between the two countries in the coming weeks, given the demand already identified in the neighbouring country.

“We will soon be able to announce this connection,” Naftal said.

LAM’s flight network covers 12 destinations in the domestic market, in addition to Johannesburg, Dar-Es-Salaam, Harare, Lusaka and now Cape Town regionally. It operates more than 40 flights daily using a Boeing 737, three Bombardier Q400s, two Bombardier CRJ 900s and two Embraer 145s operated by the subsidiary MEX – Moçambique Expresso.

The Cape Town and Lisbon routes are part of the revitalization plan put in place since South African company Fly Modern Ark (FMA) entered the management of LAM in April this year.

LAM intends to double its aircraft fleet to at least 22 planes by 2027, the administration of the Mozambican flag company previously told Lusa.

Source: Lusa