Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican president, Daniel Chapo, stated today in Porto that the state airline Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) will resume flights to Portugal and will also begin connections to India and Brazil.
“We want to resume flights to three destinations. Of these three, we will start with Portugal. It is Portugal, Brazil and India,” announced the head of state during a meeting with the Mozambican community in Porto, where Daniel Chapo will be attending the sixth Portugal–Mozambique Bilateral Summit on Tuesday.
The suspension of LAM flights to Portugal since February, due to the restructuring of the state airline, was one of the concerns raised during the meeting with the head of state, which gathered more than one hundred people.
“After stabilising at the national level, we are already on the right path; next, we will head to Johannesburg and Harare, as well as other regional capitals,” he explained.
Although no dates were given for the resumption of LAM flights to Portugal, Chapo said that after “consolidating” this connection to leverage the potential for tourism and business, the airline will also “return to flying to Brazil” and then to India.
He also said that LAM, which has been strengthening its fleet and is currently negotiating “two more aircraft,” will then “pause and consolidate these three destinations.”
“The resumption of flights to Portugal is already in the pipeline,” Chapo insisted, assuring that LAM’s return to this route “could stabilise prices,” given that the only direct connection from Maputo to Lisbon is currently operated by TAP.
Abandoned by the Mozambican airline for nearly 12 years, the Maputo–Lisbon route was resumed on 20 November 2023 as part of the revitalisation plan by the South African Fly Modern Ark, which was then managing the carrier.
Operated with planes from the Portuguese euroAtlantic, the route was suspended in February this year, with LAM admitting to having accumulated losses of 20 million euros on that route.
