Portugal banned LAM from Mozambique for five months

The manager in charge of restructuring Mozambican airline LAM told Lusa on Wednesday that Portuguese customs would not allow cargo carried by LAM flights from Maputo into Lisbon.

“We spent 12 years without flying to Lisbon, and on December 12 we resumed flying, applied to Portuguese customs for an EOR, the European Union cargo import permit, and five months later we still hadn’t flown to Lisbon. There was no answer. But the cargo from Lisbon to Maputo is moving normally,” said Sergio Matos.

Speaking to Lusa on the sidelines of the Mozambique-Portugal Business Forum, which is taking place this afternoon at the Belém Cultural Center in Lisbon, the manager in charge of the restructuring of Mozambique Airlines (LAM) stressed that the problem is the lack of response and the delay in information provided by the Portuguese authorities.

“The process has been sent, perhaps this is the usual delay time, but since we have no information, we are worried because we are entering the fifth month of work and we do not have permission to ship cargo from Mozambique to Portugal.” , he added.

The 32-tonne aircraft flies empty from Maputo to Lisbon and full from Lisbon to Maputo, he said.

“Our traders in Mozambique are impatient because they think that this is a prohibition from the Portuguese side not to import cargo that only benefits the Portuguese traders, but we as LAM do not see this problem, we just wanted to know the minimum or maximum period. It takes some time to get permission,” added Sergio Matos.

When asked whether TAP, which also operates direct flights between Lisbon and Maputo, has permission to receive and bring cargo, the person in charge answered in the affirmative.

Earlier, the President of the Confederation of Business Associations of Mozambique (CTA), Agostinho Vuma, asked governments to harmonize legislation facilitating the development of commercial relations and remove obstacles, and also stated that it was impossible to export from Mozambique to Portugal through LAM.

“To harmonize business incentive measures for greater fluidity in Portuguese-Mozambican business, for example, after the introduction of measures and economic acceleration that allowed increased demand for tourism, it became possible to resume direct flights between Lisbon and Maputo, but the lack of permission from the tax authority to send the cargo from Maputo to Lisbon is a problem,” said Agostinho Vuma during his speech at the opening of the Forum.

“Cargo from Lisbon to Maputo can go, it is allowed, but Portuguese customs does not allow Mozambican companies to send their goods to Portuguese soil,” he complained, emphasizing that “this appeal is a way of materializing our mutually beneficial relationship.” a win-win”.

Asked about the number of passengers on the flight to Lisbon, which resumed last December, Sergio Matos told Lusa that the occupancy rate on flights from Maputo to Lisbon exceeded 80%, amounting to between 260 and 280 people on each of the two weekly flights. flights, and from Lisbon to Maputo there are between 200 and 240 passengers per flight.