Airlink (South Africa) (4Z, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has announced it will resume scheduled flights to and from Nampula from January 9, based on reassurances from the South African and Mozambican authorities that its aircraft will not be impounded on arrival at the northern Mozambican airport.
"While an attempt to seize our aircraft remains a possibility as long as the Nampula Provincial Court order has not been withdrawn, we have been assured that local officials will not attempt to execute it," Airlink CEO and Managing Director Rodger Foster said in a statement. "We maintain the court order, along with the claim against Airlink by two passengers who were recently offloaded from one of our flights after their unruly and threatening behaviour, are flawed and without merit."
The airline cancelled its flights to Nampula on January 7 following an unsuccessful attempt by Mozambican court officials to seize one of its E135s, ZS-TFL (msn 145368), at Nampula on December 28.
The officials were acting on an interim order from Nampula Provincial Court (Tribunal Judicial da Provincia de Nampula) to seize at least three of Airlink's aircraft in compensation for a damages claim brought by two local passengers who were offloaded for alleged unruly behaviour in December at Johannesburg O.R. Tambo and eight family members who opted to disembark with them. The applicants include several members of the Nampula-based Gulamo family, which owns the RGS Group conglomerate in Mozambique. A hearing is scheduled for mid-January.
Airlink said the resumption of flights was thanks to diplomatic intervention from South Africa's Department of International Relations & Cooperation, the Department of Transport, the South African Civil Aviation Authority, and their counterparts at the Mozambique Ministry of Transport and the local regulator (Instituto de Aviação Civil de Moçambique - IACM).
Airlink provides about 70% of the scheduled commercial flights between South Africa and Mozambique with services to Nampula, Maputo, Beira, Tete, Vilanculos, and Pemba, MZ.
