Mozambique: LAM’s return to European airspace budgeted at $2 million per month

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Mozambique: LAM’s return to European airspace budgeted at $2 million per month

2:19 CAT | 13 Dec 2023

Image: Lusa

The return of Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) to European airspace costs around US$2 million a month, the company’s general director said on Wednesday.

“This operation has a lot of cost elements. The immediate fixed cost is around US$2 million a month,” João Carlos Pó Jorge said aboard the Boeing 777 that left Lisbon on Tuesday with almost 200 passengers and landed today at Maputo International Airport – the company’s first return flight from European airspace.

READ: Mozambique: LAM resumes flights to Lisbon after 12 years

The 302-seat Boeing 777 flight, resulting from a partnership with the Portuguese operator EuroAtlantic, will connect the two capitals three times a week, with economy class promotional prices starting at 25,000 meticais (€368).

“We want to provide a very Mozambican service. We want the passengers to board in Lisbon and feel like they are already in Mozambique, with the meals, dishes and Mozambican products and, obviously, the hospitality of Mozambique,” the company’s general director declared.

The Maputo-Lisbon route, abandoned by the company almost 12 years ago, is part of the operator’s revitalization plan, after the South African company Fly Modern Ark (FMA) entered the management of LAM in April this year for the process of restructuring.

“The restructuring process is obviously long and the results are not felt immediately. This first flight is an example. The flight will not generate income tomorrow or next week (…) But we are on the right path,” Jorge declared.

The adoption of promotional prices in the first phase of the operation, announced in October, has resulted in the company selling, to date, around 12,000 Maputo – Lisbon tickets for the period between December 12 and October, 2024.

“I bought the ticket 24 hours before the flight and, even so, the price was very reasonable. Now everything is easier for us,” said Danila Patel, who frequently travels between the two capitals and was among the almost 200 people who boarded the inaugural flight.

“For us, in Mozambique, travelling to Lisbon was very difficult, because of the cost. Few people can afford tickets costing €1,600. We ended up being forced to make stopovers, which are exhausting. Now things are better,” Winety Tomás, another passenger on the first flight, told Lusa.

Under the restructuring plan, in addition to Lisbon, LAM also has its eyes on other markets, including Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and India.

In addition to the Maputo-Lisbon route, the Mozambican flag company has other routes connecting Maputo to destinations in South Africa in the pipeline, with the emphasis on Cape Town, to where flights started on Tuesday.

The ongoing strategy to revitalise the company follows years of operational problems related to the small fleet and lack of investment, with a record of non-fatal incidents associated by experts with poor aircraft maintenance.

Four months after implementing a set of interventions, the carrier was stabilised and repositioned, the company itself maintains.

Source: Lusa