South African Fly Modern Ark (FMA), which led the first attempt to restructure the state-owned airline Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM), said on Thursday, May 8, that it was open to cooperating in the forensic audit of the airline’s accounts.
“FMA was legally and transparently appointed by the previous Mozambican administration to lead the provisional restructuring of LAM during a period of serious financial and operational instability. At no time have we been under investigation. On the contrary, our team has actively cooperated with the authorities and the judiciary,” the entity said in a statement.
According to the FMA, LAM’s problem is linked to alleged “internal networks responsible for theft and mismanagement,” accusing the national carrier of violating the agreement between the parties by paying only half of the final bill.
“As a result of this breach, the FMA was forced to initiate legal proceedings, including the seizure of a residential property in an upscale suburb of Johannesburg, valued at three million rand. Despite these unresolved financial issues, we reaffirm our willingness to cooperate with the current government,” it concluded.
LAM has been facing operational problems for several years related to a reduced fleet and lack of investment, with some non-fatal incidents reported, which experts attribute to poor aircraft maintenance.
Data show that in 2021 alone, LAM recorded a loss of more than 1.4 billion meticals (US$21.7 million), in 2022 with 448.6 million meticals (US$6.9 million), in 2023 with 3.9 billion meticals (US$60.5 million) and in 2024 with 2.2 billion meticals (US$34.1 million).
Recently, the Mozambican President, Daniel Chapo, stated that there are “foxes and corrupt individuals” within the company Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique, who have “conflicts of interest” and who have prevented the restructuring of the company in accordance with the plan for the first 100 days of government.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) has already opened an investigation into the hiring of South African company Fly Modern Ark (FMA), whose mission was to restructure LAM, which has been in a critical financial situation for years.
In April 2023, when Fly Modern Ark took over the management of the company (whose contract ended in September 2024), it acknowledged that it had an estimated debt of US$300 million and, during the course of its work, the South African entity reported money embezzlement schemes at LAM, with losses of more than US$3 million, in ticket sales outlets, through automatic payment terminal machines (TPA/POS) that did not belong to the company.
Currently, LAM carries an average of 915 passengers per day on domestic and regional routes, but the continuity of this flow is compromised, given the inadequacy of the fleet and the fragility of its operational structure.
