LAM review by Jonah

We took four flights with this so called airline over the course of 5 days. These amounted to a return from Johannesburg to Maputo and return domestic flights from Maputo to Vilanculos. None of the flights were remotely on time and one, after a delay of some 5 hours was cancelled. For me this was the defining moment of LAM in which their management hadn't a clue what was going on much less the skills to communicate at least the fact of a delay to passengers. At the point of cancellation they seemed to have appointed a 14 year old girl to scribble out a few vouchers and shepherd us onto a bus that took us to a third rate hotel for overnight. We only learned of the pick up time next day from a fellow passenger who was in contact with a friend who worked for the airline. In the event the bus to the airport turned up nearly an hour late and took a circuitous route to the airport due to having to drop off the drivers wife at the bust station. Of course we needn't have worried about being late to the airport as the plane was ...you've guessed it...delayed! LAM is extensively referred to as LATE AND MAYBE and worse still even the staff seem to accept this. On each of our flights, there were tedious problems with the airline's computer system that delayed things at check in and on three of these, our boarding cards were hand written. Quaint it might be but there is no place for such nonsense in modern aviation. I've since heard tales from enough sources to support credibility that senior managers often treat aircraft as their personal planes and have rerouted scheduled flights to get themselves around the country. Frankly this airline is a shambles and if it wasn't heavily subsidised by the Mozambican taxpayers would have gone bust long ago. Yes they are cheap but I for one will never trust them again. You certainly get what you pay for with LAM and sadly often less even than that.