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Thursday, May 30, 2013

► MOZAMBIQUE: LAM plans Cape Town and Durban, Blantyre and Lilongwe in 2014; to cover all SADC capitals by 2017 with Brazil ops also on the radar.

LAM Mozambique AirlinesMarlene Manave, the CEO of LAM - Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (TM) has announced ambitious route expansion plans that will see the Mozambican carrier serving all Southern African Development Community (SADC) capitals by 2017 with Brazilian flights to follow.

LAM 767-200ER in 1992 (C Volpati)
LAM 767-200ER in 1992 (C Volpati)
Speaking during a visit by Mozambican Prime Minister Alberto Vaquina to the company’s headquarters in Maputo, Ms Manave said that LAM had seen "remarkable growth over the last few years with the volume of business increasing from USD100million in 2009 to USD157million last year."
According to Manave, LAM is working hard to remove Mozambique from the list of countries that are banned from flying in European Union airspace. If this is not possible, LAM is pushing for the company to be listed in the EU blacklist’s “Annex B” which covers airlines which are restricted to operating certain aircraft within EU airspace.

Among its short term plans are flights to Cape Town and Durban due in 2014 along with a connection between the Mozambican cities of Tete and Nampula to Blantyre and Lilongwe in Malawi. Windhoek, Namibia is scheduled to begin in 2017.

In addition, LAM is considering launching intercontinental flights to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil in 2016 or 2017.