On 21 December, Mozambique Airlines (LAM) will launch an operation between the South African town of Lanseria, where thousands of Mozambican miners work, and Filipe Jacinto Nyusi airport, the first major commercial operation of that infrastructure.
“We know that our brothers are there and that they usually return massively at the end of the year. The information we have is that there will be around 5,000 miners,” explained LAM’s commercial director, Firmino Naftal, speaking to journalists at Cape Town’s international airport.
He added that the link between Lanseria, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, and Filipe Jacinto Nyusi airport, in the southern province of Gaza, will have four flights a day from 21 December to 24 December, and will resume after the New Year period to take them back to the mines in South Africa.
The airport was inaugurated by the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, on 11 November 2021, but since then it has had practically no commercial activity, with this LAM operation being the first major operation at the infrastructure.
“We know that there is a large South African community in Gaza and Inhambane province that is looking for these services. If there is consolidation, we will in fact be able to maintain this operation,” admitted Firmino Naftal.
This will be LAM’s third destination in South Africa, where it already flies to the international airports of Johannesburg and Cape Town.
