Mozambique: New LAM boss pushes ahead with strategic plan

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Mozambique: New LAM boss pushes ahead with strategic plan

11:50 CAT | 04 Mar 2024

File photo: Lusa

The new director-general of LAM, the Mozambican airline, Theunis Crous, told Lusa on Friday that he would be putting forward a strategic plan for the company until 2030 and that he intended to expand routes.

Theunis Crous, who is also the general manager of South Africa’s Fly Modern Ark (FMA), which was appointed by the Mozambican government in April last year to recover LAM, took up the post this week and said that one of the objectives is to continue with the “review of assets” and the “financial restructuring” of the company.

“We are going to review the strategic partnerships with Boeing, Bombardier, Embraer and De Havilland,” explained Crous, adding that the same will be done with the aircraft leasing companies that work with Mozambique Airlines (LAM).

On the other hand, the new director-general said that “the government’s vision” for the company’s future will be implemented.

“We’re going to work on creating the 2025-2030 Strategic Plan, renewing and standardising the fleet and consolidating the new routes, Maputo – Lisbon and Maputo – Cape Town,” he said.

The “expansion of domestic, regional and intercontinental routes” is also among the objectives.

On Wednesday, LAM’s Board of Directors announced that the company’s general manager, João Carlos Pó Jorge, was stepping down as part of the company’s restructuring measures. On the same day, he was replaced by Theunis Crous, who will take on the role on an interim basis until 30 April, the period set for the decision to renew the contract with FMA, in which LAM’s new CEO is a partner and its managing director.

READ: Mozambique: Transport minister backs LAM management company

Asked by Lusa if this appointment was a sign of the executive’s confidence in FMA’s work to revitalise LAM, Theunis Crous said that “the government is the one who has to answer that question”. Even so, he added: “But I am honoured by the confidence.”

On Thursday, Mozambique’s minister of transport and communications defended the renewal of the contract with FMA.

“What we did at the beginning was to bring in people who could help us as consultants, as advisors on the prudent decisions that should be made about the management, operation of the airlines, and that’s Fly Modern Ark. Unless you give me reasons for them not to continue, as long as you don’t give me reasons for them not to continue, they will continue,” Mateus Magala told the media on the sidelines of a public event in Maputo.

Fly Modern Ark was contracted in April 2023 to implement a restructuring and recovery plan for LAM within a year, and it is not known whether or not the agreement will be renewed.

The government official did not clarify, saying that the sector’s plan foresees LAM’s situation stabilising in between one and three years, depending on the dynamics of the process.

“That’s the period we think we can stabilise. Hopefully, it will come sooner because that’s what we want in order to make a definitive decision,” added Mateus Magala.

The dismissal of João Carlos Pó Jorge, who had been general manager since 2018, came after LAM’s restructuring director, Sérgio Matos, denounced in February a scheme to embezzle money, with losses of around €3 million, in ticket shops, through automatic payment terminal machines (TPA/POS) that do not belong to the company.

According to the Mozambican transport minister, the dismissal of LAM’s director-general was a “normal” procedure and was due to the need to “adjust the machine” of the company and work with people who can fulfil the parameters required of the flag carrier.

The Central Office for Combating Corruption (GCCC) has opened a case to investigate alleged corruption schemes in the sale of tickets on the Mozambican airline and in the management of the company’s fleet, a source linked to the investigations told Lusa.

Source: Lusa