Maputo, 15 Sep (AIM) – The air company Moçambique Expresso (Mex), which is a subsidiary of Mozambique Airlines (LAM), has resumed activities involving domestic and regional flights.
During the five days of stoppage, the company recorded a loss in the order of 45 million meticais (about 704,000 dollars, at the current exchange rate).
According to the general manager of Mex, Faustino Massitela, the recovery comes after an agreement with the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, Embraer to pay off a debt of more than 1.1 million dollars, in instalments until January 2025.
With the implementation of this agreement, Massitela explained, the company’s technical and operational areas regained access to the FlyEmbraer platform last Tuesday night, which is necessary for fleet management, so that ‘the causes that led to the decision to suspend operations”” on 31 August have been resolved.
The Mex management has acknowledged that, without resolving this debt, the company would be unable “to receive or request any service or technical support from Embraer.”
“The failure to channel the amounts to Mex puts the company in a situation where it lacks the liquidity to honour its commitments to suppliers, putting it at risk of going out of business”, he said.
Mex operates three Embraer 145 aircraft to various destinations in the country and the region, at the service of LAM, which is facing severe financial difficulties. In April, this led the government to place it under the management of South Africa’s Fly Modern Ark (FMA).
As well as providing LAM with medium-sized aircraft to fulfil its schedule, Mex also provides ground handling and various services, receiving the equivalent of 200,000 dollars a month, which is used to pay part of the staff’s wages.
In a document, Mex warns that since 1 June, LAM has seen ‘a substantial reduction in the use of the Mex fleet, which compromises the company’s ability to generate revenue to support its costs, as well as under-utilisation of available financial resources”. In addition, the company ‘has been accumulating debts with suppliers, whose participation in Mex’s operations is vital for the continuity’ of the company.
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