.“It’s all in the pipeline”

Ethiopian Airlines is set to become the second foreign-owned company to operate regular domestic passenger flights in Mozambique, the chairman of the Civil Aviation Institute of Mozambique (IACM) told Lusa yesterday.

“The company has already submitted all the necessary documents and we believe it will be flying in the country within two months,” João de Abreu explained.

At present, Ethiopian Airlines is in the third of five stages required to obtain operator’s certificate to fly between provincial capitals and Maputo in the 2,000-km long country.

“The third stage consists of a thorough evaluation of all the manuals and documents that are required. This is the most important phase, but this is a large and experienced company, so the process will be much faster,” he added.

The next two phases consist of demonstrating the company’s 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.“It’s all in the pipeline,” Abreu said.

In addition to Ethiopian Airlines, the public company CFM – Transportes e Trabalhos Aéreos (belonging to Mozambique Ports and Railways) is in the process of obtaining the certificate, and is now in the second phase, which consists of the submission of operation and quality manuals as well as the delivery of the maintenance programme.“They are still in the internal phase of equipment acquisition. It is not enough to want to fly, you also have to fulfil the necessary conditions,” Abreu said.Ethiopian Airlines will join Fastjet, which in November 2017 became the first foreign-owned company to make regular domestic passenger flights in Mozambique.Until then, only the state-owned Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) operated flights between provincial capitals, but management problems and shortages of airplanes have caused delays and rescheduling of flights over the last few years.Ethiopian Airlines is one of Africa’s largest airlines, a member of the Star Alliance network since 2011 with a fleet of 88 aircraft serving 116 airports worldwide, the company’s website says.