Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique Airlines (LAM) has sold around 12,000 tickets for journeys between Maputo and Lisbon, a route whose reactivation was announced in October and whose first flight departs on Tuesday, the company announced on Friday.
The tickets already sold by the Mozambican flag-carrier cover the period between 12 December, the date of the restart, and October 2024, explained Sérgio Matos, LAM’s restructuring project manager, at a press conference in Maputo.
“These are encouraging figures because our forecast was for losses for at least three months or six months. As a general rule, every international route has six months of losses (…) We’re getting buy-in, and we want to believe that in February, the figures will go up,” he explained.
The flights, starting at 25,000 meticais (€368) in economy class, will be operated by a B777 aircraft with 302 seats, which will connect the two capitals three times a week, following a partnership with Portuguese operator EuroAtlantic.
“We’re going to pay our partner for the number of hours they’ll be operating. So far, everything is going as agreed,” said Sérgio Matos.
The Maputo-Lisbon route, abandoned by the company almost 12 years ago, is part of the operator’s revitalisation plan after the South African company Fly Modern Ark (FMA) took over management of LAM in April this year for the restructuring process.
Four months after implementing a series of interventions, according to the company, the carrier has been stabilised and repositioned.
In addition to the Maputo-Lisbon route, the Mozambican flag carrier has new routes in the pipeline linking Maputo to different points in South Africa, especially Cape Town.
“We believe that these are routes that can help give the company some income. Some people wonder why they’re opening routes abroad if even here, internally, we’re still not well consolidated. It’s just a question of strategy: diversifying sales,” he said.
The ongoing strategy to revitalise the company follows years of operational problems related to a reduced fleet and a lack of investment, with some incidents, not fatal, associated by experts with inefficient aircraft maintenance.
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