Ethiopian Airlines to start domestic flights in Mozambique within two months
Ethiopian Airlines is expected to start regular domestic flights in Mozambique in one or two months, João de Abreu, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Civil Aviation Institute of Mozambique (IACM), has told Noticias.
According to de Abreu, the airline has already submitted the necessary documents to obtain IACM certification, and is in the third of five phases required to obtain operator certificate in Mozambique.
João de Abreu says the Phase Three evaluation is the most important, since it is this stage in which the complete manuals and documents are checked, and in which the company indicates its headquarters.
The next two phases concern demonstrating the ability to comply with safety procedures on an experimental flight and the formal delivery of the air certificate, authorising the company to fly in Mozambique.
The entry of Ethiopian Airlines into the domestic passenger transport market is the result of a tender for domestic routes launched by the Mozambican authorities last year, in which companies such as Solenta (which already operates in partnership with Fastjet), CFM, Malawian Airlines, LAM and MEX also qualified.
Malawian Airlines was later disqualified for failing to comply with additional procedures within 180 days.
In conversation with Noticias, IACM’s PCA questioned the role of MEX, which has recently been operating routes previously operated by LAM but without expanding into new routes as planned.
“What happens is that, when two companies like LAM and MEX come together to operate the same routes, they create dysfunctions from the point of view of expansion,” de Abreu said.
The CFM – Transport and Air Works process is however well under way.
“They started off with a project to operate an Airbus, but then presented another proposal for the Q400 aircraft model. This takes time, because just one single manual has more than a thousand pages, so it’s not an easy process,” Abreu explained.
Reference Source: Notícias – Club of Mozambique