10 December, 2002, JOHANNESBURG: South African Airways (SAA) and Mozambique Airlines, LAM, have signed a co-operation agreement to allow their customers to book seats on either of the carriers.

The code share agreement was signed today (Friday) by Andile Mabizela, SAA Executive Vice President for Alliances and Aeropolitical Affairs and Linhas Aéreas de Mocambique (LAM) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, José Ricardo Viegas.

No airline can fly to every corner of the world. So we have to form partnerships. The new relationship with LAM is an exciting venture for SAA. It presents a number of opportunities for the growth of the Mozambican economy and trade between the two countries.

Airlines began code share partnerships as a means of increasing investor return, pooling resources and smoothing out travel for passengers.

While the airlines generally remain separate entities, they exchange privileges such as booking tickets so travellers from each partner airline can make seamless connections no matter which one issues the tickets. In doing so, airlines can help fill up each other`s planes and also reach areas outside their normal network.

SAA and LAM’s agreement further illustrates SAA’s mission to increase and strengthen its partnerships throughout the African continent and provide additional services for its passengers. It also forms part of SAA’s “Networking Africa” growth strategy.

The codeshare agreement will be implemented from 1 March, 2003. Currently SAA operates one flight daily to and from Maputo and one additional flight on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. LAM operates 11 frequencies.

LAM has been a Limited company since 23 December 1998 with the state holding 80% of its shares. Employees, managers and technicians hold the remaining 20%. LAM’s head office is in Maputo and presently employs over 1000 people.
LAM and SAA will benefit from each other’s network. Through its partnerships with SA Airlink and SA Express, SAA is able to service over 20 destinations within Africa. Other than Maputo, these include, Harare, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Entebbe (Uganda), Nairobi (Kenya), Lusaka (Zambia), Luanda (Angola), Port Louis (Mauritius), Lagos (Nigeria), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Accra (Ghana), Windhoek, Walvis Bay (Namibia), Blantyre, Lilongwe (Malawi), Gabarone (Botswana) Livingstone (Zambia), Maseru (Lesotho), Manzini (Swaziland), Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo). More recently, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) has been added to the growing list and operations to Dakar, Senegal will come into effect on 7 January 2003.

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