The Air France / KLM group has begun talks with the government of Mozambique on the resumption of direct flights between Paris and Maputo. Air France’s Managing Director for Africa, Franck Legre, told reporters that he hoped the service will begin within the next two years. He commented, “the economy of Mozambique is growing fast and the discovery of natural gas deposits makes this country attractive”. Legre was speaking in the Ivory Coast on Sunday during a ceremony to launch a new Air France service between Abidjan and Paris using the Airbus A380 aircraft.

There have been no direct flights between Maputo and Paris for around two decades. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s Mozambique Airlines (LAM) operated a weekly flight, using a DC-10 aircraft, from Maputo to Paris, Copenhagen and Berlin. Currently the only direct flights from Mozambique to Europe are between Maputo and Lisbon, operated by the Portuguese airline, TAP.