More on Fastjet announcing domestic flights timetable – AIM

7:54 CAT | 12 Oct 2017

The Pan African low-cost airline Fastjet on Thursday announced the timetable for its domestic service in Mozambique.

There will be three routes: between the capital city Maputo and the cities of Beira, Nampula, and Tete. Flights will begin on 3 November and will be served by Embraer E145 aircraft with a capacity of fifty passengers.

The route between Maputo and Beira will be a daily service, with a twice-daily service on Fridays and Sundays. Maputo to Nampula will also be a daily service, whilst flights from the capital to Tete will run four times per week.

According to the Fastjet website a one-way ticket from Maputo to Beira, taxes included, will cost 5,300 meticais (87 US dollars). The Maputo-Nampula flight is somewhat more expensive, at just under 6,000 meticais.

By comparison, the flights operated by Mozambique Airlines (LAM) from Maputo to Beira one way in mid-November cost between 6,857 and 10,706 meticais. The cheapest LAM flight from Maputo to Nampula for the same time is 7,957 meticais.

In September, the Mozambique Civil Aviation Institute (IACM) for the first time ever opened the domestic route market to foreign airlines. The routes were put out to tender earlier this year and Ethiopian Airlines and Malawi Airlines successfully applied for authorisation to fly the domestic routes.

Five Mozambican companies were also authorised: namely LAM; its subsidiary Mocambique Expresso (MEX); the air transport division of Mozambique Railways, CFM Transportes Aereos; the long-established light aircraft company TTA; and Solenta Aviation Mozambique.

The Fastjet service will be run in partnership with Solenta.

LAM has come under severe criticism for its poor service with issues such as overbooking, delayed flights and even cancellations.

Source: AIM