LAM - Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (TM, Maputo) is to be restructured in order to allow it to offer better domestic coverage as well as improve its regional network, the Mozambican government has announced.
Outlining the country's new Transport Sector Integrated Development plan (Estratégia do Desenvolvimento Integrado do sector dos Transportes), the Ministry of Transport said the plan envisages LAM serving all capitals of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) - Kinshasa N'Djili, Luanda 4 De Fevereiro, Lusaka, Dar es Salaam, Lilongwe, Harare International, Gaborone, Windhoek International, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo, Antananarivo, Mauritius and Mahé - by 2016.
Expansion will be denominated with a fleet of three new B737-700s ordered from Boeing (BOE, Washington National) in November last year. The carrier also holds options for an additional three of the type.
Maputo has also called for the airline's planned longhaul subsidiary, LAM Internacional (Maputo), to partner successful Mozambican parastatals such as local railway firm CFM, Aeroportos de Moçambique AdM - the local airport and aviation regulator, and local bus transport company TPM among others.
"LAM should introduce intercontinental flights under the umbrella of a new intercontinental air transport company, operating under legal autonomy, that is both viable and functional, so as not to risk contaminating itself by associating with LAM," the development plan read.
Announced in 2011, LAM Internacional was an initiative between the state shareholding company Instituto de Gestão das Participações do Estado (IGEPE) and LAM Mozambique. However, owing to a lack of resources, the subsidiary was never able to launch operations, which was to have included flights to China and Brazil.
