The airline Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) has registered, in the last six months, at least three incidents with its aircraft, one of which was related to a glass delamination in mid-flightbut its general manager, João Pó Jorge, says there is no lack of maintenance.

In an interview to VOA, Pó Jorge explains that "the four airplanes that we have are all rented and the owner (of them) would not allow any other maintenance but the highest rigor (...) because they are going to be returned and will be with other operators in Europe, United States and Africa, and they don't want us to start questioning the level of maintenance that was done.

The series of incidents has been the subject of much criticism from passengers in a market practically dominated by LAM, at least on domestic routes.

Pó Jorge recognizes that "any incident that happens puts the company's image at stake, and we are making a major effort that is to share the information we have with our passenger and then with the general public, in parallel we always learn from what happens.

These incidents occur at a time when LAM, according to Pó Jorge, "carries an extremely fragile balance sheet, because it has debts of several years that were the result of acquisitions and commitments that were made and that have to be met.

There is a record of corruption cases related to previous managers of the company. At least one of them is related to the acquisition of aircraft.

For the flagship airline to be viable, Pó Jorge points to an investment of around US$500 million, something that has not yet been approved by the largest shareholder, the Mozambican state.

"If we want to have ten more planes all of a sudden within four to five years we are talking about between $500 to $700 million if everything is invested, but we are going to have a combination of half the investment and leased units," he commented.

About IGEPE's response to this need for investment to wear down the company, LAM's general manager said that there is positive indication, "the Government/State is the majority shareholder and the fact that IGEPE is working with us on this restructuring indicates that it has faith."