Ethiopian Mozambique Airlines suspends flights

Ethiopian Mozambique Airlines (EMZ, Beira) has announced the indefinite suspension of its domestic flights from May 6, 2021, citing as reason a drastic drop in domestic travel demand due to COVID-19. In a statement on May 1, 2021, the carrier said that despite the challenges, it had remained “resiliently operational” during the pandemic, however, the economic challenges now had become so severe that it had become impossible to continue operating. The airline said it would monitor developments in the market. Ethiopian Mozambique Airline is a Mozambique-registered carrier based at the capital Maputo. It was established as competition to state-owned LAM – Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (TM, Maputo) in December 2018 in partnership with Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa), which owns 99% of the company, with the remaining 1% owned by Malawi Airlines (3W, Lilongwe). The carrier originally served eight domestic destinations, including Maputo, Nampula, Tete, Beira, Pemba, Nacala, Quelimane and Chimoio. It lately had reduced its schedule to Beira, Maputo, Nampula, and Tete, the ch-aviation schedules module and FlightRadar24 ADS-B data revealed. The carrier was operating with one DHC-8-Q400, ET-AXP (msn 4607), wet-leased in from Ethiopian Airlines, according to ch-aviation fleets advanced module. With Ethiopian Mozambique not suspended, only LAM is currently active in the large scale scheduled Mozambican market offering flights between Maputo, Pemba, Nampula, Beira, Tete, Quelimane, Lichina, and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). Aside from Mozambique, Ethiopian also has regional joint-venture airlines in Malawi (Malawi Airlines), Chad (Tchadia Airlines), and Zambia (Zambia Airways). It also has a shareholding in ASKY Airlines (KP, Lomé) in Togo.