Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) is a sick company in the recovery phase, which still doesn't have pilots trained for longer routes such as Maputo-Lisbon, according to the Minister of Transport and Communications.

Mateus Magala recognizes the precarious state of the institution and argues that LAM should be restored rather than allowed to collapse.

"We have never, at any time, had the illusion that our company is sick. We've never had that, but either we abandon the sick or we treat the sick," he said, quoted today by the channel STV.

He pointed out that one of the current deficits is the lack of Mozambican pilots already trained to fly a Boeing 777, such as the one introduced on the Maputo-Lisbon route.

"We don't have pilots who know how to fly the Boeing 777. So we're in the process of giving them the opportunity to learn because aviation is a science, not a curiosity," he warned. According to the president, it takes at least six months to learn how to handle the aircraft.

For Magala, human capital must be prioritized, to the detriment of cutting-edge materials. "It doesn't matter if you have money and infrastructure if your human capacity falls short of modernization."

He also considered that the obstacles to flights may be due to the fact that LAM is in a phase of readaptation, after having been suspended from accessing the European space for around two decades.

The minister was speaking on Monday on the sidelines of the launch of a public tender on the island of KaNyaka, in Maputo city.