Mozambique Expresso (Mex), a subsidiary of state-owned LAM, announced on Wednesday the immediate resumption of operations, involving domestic and regional flights, two weeks after the suspension, after agreeing a plan to pay a debt to Embraer.

Through an internal communication, the company's managing director, Faustino Massitela, confirmed that Mex is in a position to guarantee the "re-establishment of normal operations with immediate effect".

The decision is based on an agreement with the Brazilian construction company Embraer to pay off a debt of 1.167 million dollars in 17 installments by January 2025.

Meanwhile, with the implementation of this agreement, Mex's general manager, quoted by Lusa, said that the company's technical and operations areas "confirmed" that they had regained access to the FlyEmbraer platform on Tuesday night, which is necessary for fleet management, so "the causes that led to the decision to suspend operations" on August 31 have been resolved.

Mex operates three Embraer 145 aircraft to various destinations in the country and in the region, namely at the service of LAM, which is facing severe financial difficulties which in April led the government to place it under the management of South Africa's Fly Modern Ark (FMA).

"In addition to providing LAM with medium-sized aircraft to meet the LAM timetable, Mex provides ground handling and various other services (...) From all these services, Mex only receives the equivalent of 200,000 dollars, which is used to pay part of the staff's salaries," reads another communication, dated June 29, signed by Faustino Massitela, which Lusa previously reported.

"The failure to channel the amounts to Mex puts the company in a situation of lack of liquidity to honor its commitments to suppliers, putting the company at risk of closing down," it adds.

The same letter warned that since June 1, LAM has seen "a substantial reduction in the use of the Mex fleet, which compromises its ability to generate revenue to support its costs, as well as underutilization of available financial resources" and that "it has been accumulating debts with suppliers", such as Embraer.

"It is our opinion that LAM and MEX, involving the FMA, must find an urgent solution to the situations referred to here. Failure to resolve these issues puts Mex in a position to stop operations at any time," the general manager warned in the same letter, something that materialized on August 31.

One of the debts to Embraer, of 1,167,309.89 dollars, the company acknowledges in another communication, sent on November 14 to the Brazilian company, regarding the acquisition of the ERJ145 fleet. Mex even proposed to Embraer to pay 50% on this debt earlier this year, amounting to 583,654.95 dollars. Without resolving this debt, Mex's management acknowledged at the time that the dispute "prevents it from receiving or requesting any service or technical support from Embraer".