France reckoning on offering direct flights from Paris to Maputo.

Aviation group Air France-KLM says it is negotiating with the Mozambican government to offer direct flights from Paris to Maputo this year. 

The airline roup’s vice-president Frank Legre is quoted in local media on Sunday as saying the route includes direct links between Paris and Maputo,the Mozambican capital, where the economy is growing quickly and which has become attractive because of the discovery of natural gas deposits.

 The most recent airline to enter the Mozambican market is Qatar Airways, which introduced flights from Doha to Maputo three times a week via Johannesburg, South Africa. João Abreu, the president of thenMozambique Institute of Civil Aviation (IACM), said that the negotiations were the result of a memorandum signed late last year with his French counterpart concerning a direct link between France and Mozambique and covering the French islands in the Indian Ocean. 

As part of the plan, three weekly flights are now offered between Pemba in northern Mozambique and Mayotte in the Comoros by French carrier Air Austral under a code- sharing agreement with Mozambican flagship airline Linhas Aéreas de Mozambique(LAM). 

The agreement could also potentially open up new routes between Reunion and Maputoand other Mozambicandestinations. 

Source: APA