Africa-Press – Mozambique. Airline Moçambique Expresso (MEX), a subsidiary of the state-owned Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique – LAM, confirmed on Wednesday the immediate resumption of operations, including domestic and regional flights, two weeks after suspension, after agreeing with Embraer on a debt repayment plan.
An internal communication to which Lusa has had access, dated Wednesday 13-09 and signed by the company’s general director, Faustino Massitela, confirms that Mex is in a position to guarantee the “reestablishment of normal operations with immediate effect”.
At the origin of the decision is an understanding with the Brazilian company Embraer for the payment, in 17 instalments and by January 2025, of a debt of US$1.167 million (€1.1 million), in accordance with the terms of the agreement to which Lusa had access.
With the enforcement of this agreement, the general director of MEX states that the company’s technical and operations areas “confirmed” that they once again had access to the FlyEmbraer platform on Tuesday night, necessary for fleet management, and therefore ” the causes that led to the decision to suspend operations [on August 31st] have been resolved”.
According to information from the company, Mex operates three Embraer 145 type aircraft to various destinations in the country and the region, particularly in the service of LAM, which is facing severe financial difficulties which in April led the government to place it under the management of South African company, Fly Modern Ark (FMA).
“In addition to providing LAM with medium-sized aircraft to comply with the LAM schedule, MEX provides ground assistance and various other services (…) Of all these services, Mex only receives the equivalent of US$200,000, an amount which is used to pay part of the staff’s salaries”, reads the communication dated June 29th, signed by Faustino Massitela, as previously reported by Lusa.
“Failure to channel funds to MEX places the company in a situation of lack of liquidity to honour its commitments with suppliers, putting the company at risk of closing its doors,” it adds.
The same letter warned that since June 1st, LAM has seen “a substantial reduction in the use of the Mex fleet, which compromises its ability to generate revenue to support its costs, in addition to underutilization of available financial resources” and that MEX “has been accumulating debts with suppliers”, such as Embraer.
“It is our opinion that LAM and MEX, involving the FMA, must find an urgent solution to the situations referred to here. Failure to resolve these matters puts Mex in a position to stop operations at any time,” the general-director had warned in the same letter, something which came to pass on August 31st.
One of the debts to Embraer, of around US$1.16 million (around €1.1 million), the company acknowledges in another communication sent to the Brazilian company on November 14, concerns the acquisition of the ERJ145 fleet. MEX even proposed to Embraer paying 50% of this debt (US$583,654.95/€550,000) at the beginning of this year. MEX’s management recognized that failure to resolve this dispute would “prevent [MEX] receiving or requesting any service or technical support from Embraer”.
Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique has reduced its debt by US$61.6 million (€57 million) since April, and continues to recover, said Sérgio Matos, representative of Fly Modern Ark (FMA).
When the FMA took over management of the state-owned airline in April, it had debts estimated at around US$300 million (€277.7 million), according to data provided at the time.
In the last three months, LAM recorded a 24% increase in the number of passengers transported, to more than 56,000, and increased flight revenue by 10% to 671 million meticais (almost €10 million).
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