Why did Mozambique Airlines return the Leased cargo aircraft without operating a single Revenue flight after a year?

• Mozambique Airlines (LAM) started the service, called LAM Cargo, and was launched on March 13, 2024.
• The freighter, a Boeing 737-300F, had the capacity to transport 17 tons of cargo, and was expected to make two trips per week to each provincial capital.
• The frieghter could never take-off since the day the service was launched due to a lack of documentation that must be submitted to the Civil Aviation Institute of Mozambique (IACM) for the purposes of aircraft approval.
• The documents relate to the certification and modification of the aircraft done by a third party agency other than Boeing.

Based at Maputo International Airport, Mozambique Airlines (LAM) has returned its latest Boeing B737-300 to its origin after failing to certify the cargo plane for operations in Mozambican territory, the company announced on Tuesday in a statement.

According to LAM,

“the aircraft in question remained in Mozambique from 31 December 2023 and departed from Maputo International Airport on 18 January 2025, heading to Jakarta, Indonesia.”

As per sources, the flag carrier of Mozambique, spent $3 million to bring the aircraft from Indonesia to Maputo and incurred an additional $930,000 in leasing costs for the 17-tonne capacity plane, which stayed in the country for a year.

The aircraft is also being returned because it did not receive approval from Boeing, due to modifications made to it, the company added.

LAM had submitted a request for the certification of the Boeing aircraft to the IACM, which acts as the regulator in the aviation sector, Chairman of the Board of Directors of IACM, João Martins de Abreu, told Noticias yesterday.

However, the Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority of Mozambique (IACM) has refused to certify a cargo plane presented to it by Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM), because the carrier could not provide all the necessary documentation.

“We are aware of the need for greater flexibility in the certification of aircraft operating in the country. However, as the Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority, it is our obligation to comply with and ensure compliance with the rules and conventions that regulate the operation of Civil Aviation in the country and worldwide,” De Abreu said.

At the time of the aircraft’s arrival in the country, LAM had announced that its operations would begin in March 2024, during a period when the company was under the management of the subcontracted South African firm, Fly Modern Ark.

The Boeing B737 plane was originally configured to transport passengers at the time of delivery from Boeing, but was modified to be a cargo plane by an entity outside of Boeing, who is the manufacturer (OEM) the aircraft.

Therefore, the manufacturer says that the entity that made the modifications must provide the documents requested by the IACM.

The lack of documentation prevented the plane from operating, but that did not stop the monthly rentals for the lease of the aircraft.

LAM was paying around US$93,000 per month for a plane that is not being used (5,952,000 meticais at current exchange rates).

Considering that the service was launched in March of last year, the flag carrier has already spent more than 29,760,000 meticais, on a service that never worked.

At present, LAM’s aircraft fleet comprises one Boeing 737, two Bombardier CRJ 900s, two Q400s, and two Embraer 145s, few of them operated by its subsidiary Mozambique Expresso.

Mozambique Airlines (LAM) said that it remains committed to serving the cargo segment in the Mozambican freight market using the hold capacity of aircraft already in its fleet.