Mozambique: LAM under the microscope – O País Económico

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: LAM under the microscope – O País Económico

5:20 CAT | 27 Aug 2024

File photo: O País

The lack of aircraft is behind the delays and cancellations of Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) flights. LAM is operating with only five leased aircraft and the cargo plane leased for US$93,000 a month since March this year never has never left the ground, ‘O País Económico’ reports.

Voices of passengers complaining about the services of Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique, the flag carrier, are echoing almost everywhere, and a sea of complaints floods social networks almost every day.

The question on everyone’s lips is: What is happening with Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique?

One of the most recent victims of the setbacks of Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique was a 25-year-old woman who, on condition of anonymity, spoke out. “Our flight was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on August 17th. By 4:00 p.m., all the passengers were already at the airport; we had checked in and dropped off our luggage and, up until then, everything was fine,” said the Chimoio-bound passenger.

But everything was fine only until that moment, after which information came through she and the other passengers would be unable to continue their journey to Chimoio.

“The first plane arrived, took the passengers from Beira and it was already around 6:00 p.m.. An hour later, another plane arrived, taking the passengers from Tete. Thirty minutes later, the passengers from Nampula boarded, while those from Chimoio were still on the ground and without information,” the source explained.

According to the passenger, they were told that the flight, which was scheduled for 5:00 p.m., would arrive at around 8:00 p.m.. But, after a long wait, came only a bucket of cold water.

“At 9:30 p.m., a LAM employee approached to inform us that the plane that was going to take us was having technical problems and was being repaired. At around 10:00 p.m., we were told that the flight had been cancelled and that we would be taken to a hotel,” said the 25-year-old passenger.

Journalist Amós Fernando joins the list of passengers who are angry with the flag carrier. “I had a flight scheduled for 5:40 p.m. from Maputo to Tete and this flight, I don’t know what happened, was changed to 11 p.m.,” said Amós Fernando, a passenger on Mozambique Airlines. The same flight was later rescheduled for midnight. “It was torture, because I ended up traveling for about 26 hours, which normally takes 16 or 15 hours. This is complicated and very sad,” lamented Amós Fernando.

And the unpleasantness prompts even greater dissatisfaction in a situation where passengers, just before the plane takes off, are surprised with the information that they must disembark due to a fault with the plane.

“We were told that we had to disembark and wait in the boarding lounge, because the flight would be delayed until 2:o0 p.m.,” said a passenger, on condition of anonymity, with a tone full of frustration.

The flight scheduled for 12:00 p.m. was delayed by more than six hours. “We were without a meal from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 pm and had to board. They served us the famous LAM Simbas there,” he added.

The reasons behind LAM’s flight delays and cancellations

The question that begs to be asked: why is it always like this?

The answer to the delays and cancellations of Mozambique Airlines flights is the lack of aircraft to meet demand. For now, LAM does not have any aircraft that it owns. All of the five currently in operation are leased. An airline source exclusively explained to our reporter how this impacts schedules and dates.

‘O País Económico’ learned that there are only five aircraft to ensure flag carrier’s domestic and regional operations of the.

“LAM has a Boeing 737-700 and a Q-400 in flight. These aircraft display the colors of the flag carrier, but there are three others leased from CEM AIR and Solenta Aviation. At the moment, two Q-400 aircraft are out of order. This is too few compared to the demand for the company’s services,” our source revealed.

In this scenario, the few aircraft that are in operation are overloaded.

For example, Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique is not able to have a spare aircraft to guarantee passenger transport in the event of a breakdown in one of the five that are in operation or any other unforeseen event.

Therefore, when a problem is detected on one of the planes that was about to take off, passengers must wait for the arrival of a nearby aircraft, and the wait is, on average, two hours.

Once at the airport, the plane goes through the inspection process and rests for another two hours until the next flight takes off. This happens if no fault is detected. And this confuses everything.
This explains the recurring problems of flight delays and cancellations. A source from LAM revealed to our reporting team what the solution could be.

“In an ideal scenario, LAM needs at least 12 aircraft to guarantee domestic and regional operations without problems of flight delays and cancellations,” said a source close to LAM.

Regarding all these problems, the Minister of Transport and Communications admitted that the company is ‘sick’.

“We have never, at any time, had the illusion that our company was not sick, but we either abandon the sick or treat them, and we always choose optimism,” admitted the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mateus Magala.

Magala said that the ideal solution would be to renew LAM’s aircraft fleet, but there was no money.

The outlines of LAM’s Maputo-Lisbon operation

Even before resolving domestic and regional problems, LAM Mozambique Airlines ventured on December 12, 2023, into launching a Maputo-Lisbon service. At the time, advisor to LAM Fly Modern Ark guaranteed that the business was sustainable, and that the company would make a profit.

However, less than a year after inauguration, the Maputo-Lisbon flight has had more problems than profits.

And these problems, according to what we have learned, are the result of a poorly executed contract with Euroatlantic. “Mozambique Airlines spends US$4 million a month on the Maputo-Lisbon flight, and the operation only generates US$1 million dollars a month, not even half of what is invested,” our reporting team learned.

‘O País Económico’ knows that the government will cover the remaining three million dollars to ensure the continuity of the operation, and the contract with Euroatlantic is for three years.

However, this was not the idea that Fly Modern Ark sold when the flight was launched.

“LAM will bear the operational costs and the revenues will be shared. There is a base value, which is the minimum required by the operator, which is US$4,200 per [operating] hour,” said Sérgio Matos, director of restructuring projects at Fly Modern Ark, on 30 October, 2023. This is equivalent to US$42,000 per [one-way] trip, since that takes about 10 hours.

At the time, Fly Modern Ark had assured that the Maputo-Lisbon operation would generate revenue of US$600,000 and, after deducting the US$42,000 operating costs, LAM would make a profit of US$320,000. In these terms, there was no doubt that “the business is sustainable, yes. We are sure that it is”.

A certainty that has never come to fruition, at least not until now.

The cargo plane still “without wings to fly”

In addition to the Maputo-Lisbon flight, which is not profitable, in March of this year LAM introduced a cargo service, for the first time in the company’s history. The thing is, since this service was launched, the plane has never transported cargo. In fact, it has never even left the location where it was inaugurated, and, as it is a rented aircraft, LAM is paying monthly for a means of transportation that it is not using.

The service, called LAM Cargo, was launched on March 13, 2024.

The cargo plane, a Boeing 737-300F, has the capacity to transport 17 tons of cargo, and was expected to make two trips per week to each provincial capital, with the exception of Tete, which would have just one.

The Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications said at the time that the success of the service would depend on the private sector.

“With this in mind, we urge LAM to continue the work currently underway to promote this valuable service, taking into account the adjustments that the market may require,” said Amilton Alissone, Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, on March 13, 2024.

However, as we have learned, the cargo plane has never taken off since the day the service was launched.

“The plane has not yet taken off due to a lack of documentation that must be submitted to the Civil Aviation Institute of Mozambique (IACM) for the purposes of aircraft approval. The documents relate to the certification and modification of the aircraft,” our reporting team has learned.

O País Económico knows that the plane was originally intended to transport passengers, but was modified to be a cargo plane by an entity outside of Boeing, which manufactured the aircraft. Therefore, the manufacturer says that the entity that made the modifications must provide the documents requested by the IACM.

In addition, our reporting team knows that this plane was used to transport cargo for five or six years in Indonesia.

The lack of documentation prevents the plane from operating, but does not cancel the monthly payment for the lease of the aircraft.

LAM is paying around US$93,000 per month for a plane that is not being used (5,952,000 meticais at current exchange rates).

Considering that the service was launched in March of this year, the flag carrier has already spent US$465,000, equivalent to almost 29,760,000 meticais, on a service that never worked.

Regarding all of the information listed in this report, we contacted LAM, through the Communications and Image Office, but the institution deferred comment to the coming days.

Source: O País