The new director-general of Mozambique Airlines (LAM), Theunis Crous, said on Friday 1 March that he intends to move forward with a strategic plan by 2030 to make the company profitable and expand its routes.
Crous, who is also a partner in the South African consultancy Fly Modern Ark (FMA), took office this week and guaranteed that one of the objectives is to continue with the company’s “asset review” and “financial restructuring”.
“We are going to review the strategic partnerships with Boeing, Bombardier, Embraer and De Havilland and the same will be done with the aircraft leasing companies that work with Mozambique Airlines,” he explained.
He pointed out that “work will be done on creating the 2025-30 strategic plan, renewing and standardising the fleet and consolidating the new routes, Maputo-Lisbon and Maputo-Cape Town”, stressing that “the expansion of domestic, regional and intercontinental routes is also among the objectives”.
On Wednesday (28), LAM’s board of directors announced that the company’s managing director, João Carlos Pó Jorge, was stepping down as part of the revitalisation measures.
Regarding the case, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mateus Magala, explained that the act was aimed at giving the company a new dynamism, adding that “sometimes the machine needs to be adjusted”.
“Dismissals are normal so that we can place people who will be able to work within the system and set the desired parameters. But dismissal doesn’t always mean that everything is wrong or that the manager is worthless,” he said.
He also revealed that the government may renew the contract with the South African consultancy hired last year with the mission of stabilising the national airline.
“As the organisation is doing its job well, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t continue to intervene in the recovery of the flag carrier,” he explained.
Magala explained that the aim of restructuring the national airline remains the same, so the government authorities are committed to seeking more expertise.
“We want to transform LAM into a model institution that all Mozambicans can be proud of. However, as we said before, our big plan is stabilisation. Only after that will we decide together whether the company will be privatised,” he said.
Recently, Fly Modern Ark denounced a scheme to embezzle money from ticket shops through automatic payment terminal (POS) machines not belonging to the company.
“We did a lightning job with LAM’s internal security, during which we collected all the POS from the 20 ticket sales points. There are some shops where the managers themselves don’t recognise the machines and say they don’t even know who they belong to,” said the director of the restructuring project, Sérgio Matos.
