Air France-KLM plans to start flying to Mozambique

Aviation group Air France-KLM is negotiating with the governments of Mozambique and Gabon to offer direct flights from Paris to both countries in the next two years, announced the airline group’s vice-
president Frank Legre.
Speaking to financial news agency Bloomberg, Legre said routes include direct links between Maputo and Paris and between Paris and Port Gentil, one of Gabon’s oil centres.
Air France already operates flights from Paris to Libreville, Gabon, but not to Mozambique, a country whose economy “is growing fast and has become attractive because of the discovery of deposits of natural gas,” according to Legre.
The most recent airline to operate in the Mozambican market is Qatar Airways, which introduced flights from Doha to Maputo three times a week via Johannesburg, South Africa.
João Abreu, president of the Institute of Civil Aviation of Mozambique (IACM), said that the negotiations were the result of a memorandum signed this year with his French counterpart outlining a direct link between France and Mozambique, as well as covering the French islands in the Indian Ocean.
As part of this memorandum, three weekly flights are now offered between Pemba, northern Mozambique, and Mayotte (Comoros archipelago), through French carrier Air Austral under a code-share agreement with Mozambican flagship airline Linhas Aéreas de Mozambique (LAM) and could also potentially open up new routes between Reunion and Maputo and other Mozambican destinations. MDT/Macauhub