Tewolde Gebremariam said Ethiopian Mozambique Airlines will connect eight domestic destinations in Mozambique: Maputo, Nampula, Tete, Pemba, Beira, Nacala, Quelimane and Chimoio.

“The start of the activity, which is under a partnership with Ethiopian Airlines, will promote air connections in Mozambique, thereby increasing the share of African airlines in the mainland market,” said Gebremariam during the inaugural flight that departed from Nacala to Maputo.

In September 2017, Ethiopian Airlines and Malawi Airlines were the two foreign companies selected to explore domestic air routes under a public tender launched by the Civil Aviation Institute of Mozambique (IACM) in April.

The union commission of Mozambican airline, Linhas Aereas de Mocambique (LAM) announced last week that it intends to prevent the Ethiopian Airlines from operating domestic flights in Mozambique through a subsidiary.

“The workers of LAM ask those who have the right to restore legality and take measures to safeguard national interests,” said the statement, quoted by Mozambican daily newspaper O País.

The prime minister was due to fly from the capital Maputo to Niassa in the northeast on official business on Thursday last week.

In an official statement, the airline responded: “LAM Mozambique Airlines confirms that because of limited finances it was impossible to supply aircraft with fuel meaning that the first flights of the day could not be operated.”

“After talks with the fuel supplier, aircraft were refuelled and flights resumed at 11:20 am (0920 GMT),” it added calling the incident “embarrassing”. Departure boards at Maputo’s airport showed that every LAM flight due to operate on Thursday had been cancelled.

According to AFP, Mozambique has been in the grip of a deep financial crisis since 2015 when hidden state borrowing of about $2 billion (1.7 billion euros) was discovered, prompting international donors to terminate aid contributions.

A six-year ban on the airline operating in the European Union was lifted last year. It had been imposed because of what the EU said was a lack of oversight by aviation authorities.

The memorandum covers code-share and interline agreements between the two carriers, optimized network synergies to accommodate same as well as cooperation on other commercial systems, cargo, engineering and maintenance. LAM chief executive Mr. Antonio Pinto commented that the “areas of cooperation will not only further strengthen Mozambique’s flag carrier as a regional air-services provider but contribute significantly to initiatives that promote tourism, economic development and trade.”

“This is an exciting and industry-leading public-private partnership initiative,” adds Mr. Pinto. “It not only supports Mozambique’s greater economic growth objectives in terms of the efficient and affordable movement of people and goods, but also the notion of a longer-term Whole of State Aviation strategy.” Mozambique is a signatory to the Yamoussoukro Decision and one of the early nation-adopters on the Continent.

“The approach to commercial cooperation is the first of its kind on the African continent,” says Fastjet Chief Executive Nico Bezuidenhout. “There is significant opportunity in stimulating not only commercial aviation but also up and downstream economic growth through key cooperative initiatives. Fastjet is committed to exploring and leveraging the agreement to the best-benefit of both companies and, ultimately the people of Mozambique.” The African Development Bank recently reported on a high medium-term growth forecast for Mozambique.

“This memorandum of understanding lays the foundation for full economic leverage of a very bright future and fulfilment of the Government of Mozambique’s Whole of State aviation objectives.”