Mozambique: President opens airport in Gaza, calls for flights to make it viable

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Mozambique: President opens airport in Gaza, calls for flights to make it viable

8:30 CAT | 29 Nov 2021

Photo: Noticias

Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, on Monday inaugurated an airport bearing his name in the south of the country, at Chongoene, near Xai-Xai in Gaza province, and called for flights to make it profitable.

“The sustainability of Gaza airport will not be guaranteed by tourism alone,” the head of state said, in comments made moments after the inauguration of the facility. “We did not make the airport only for tourism.”

The new airport is the first in the province of Gaza, in southern Mozambique. It cost around $60 million (€53.2 million) – this being a revised, lower figure provided by the president on Monday – funded by a donation from China.

The airport has a 1.8-kilometre runway and is large enough to serve around 220,000 passengers per year.

However, as yet no regular flights have been announced and sources from the airlines Aeroportos de Moçambique (ADM) and Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) told Lusa that these were still being prepared.

The inaugural flight, from the capital, Maputo, some 200 kilometres to the south, landed at 10.50 a.m. It was an Embraer 145 aircraft that brought the president and at the end of the ceremony took him back to Maputo. Two other flights then landed with guests: a LAM flight from Maputo and another from Nelspruit, South Africa, some 30 kilometres away, also carrying guests.

According to Nyusi, aside from tourism, Gaza province has major potential in the agriculture and mineral resources sectors, which should be taken advantage of to make the new airport profitable.

The minister of transport and communications, Janfar Abdulai, said that he was sure that the new facility was viable.

“The potential of the province leaves no doubt that this airport is viable,” said the minister, who also presented it as a possible alternative to Maputo’s international airport for some aircraft.

Source: Lusa