Solenta chairman confirms Fastjet will not launch Mozambique domestic flights from Beira base

Sources with direct knowledge of the matter told TorreNews that Solenta came under pressure to issue the denial. The investigation caused significant discomfort among regulators and within certain sensitive sectors, prompting contacts with the company aimed at producing a public response to push back against TorreNews's account. Solenta's statement, dated 22 May 2026 and released the day after the original publication, said the company was distancing itself from the report "as it does not reflect the truth" and reaffirmed its commitment to the domestic market. A coordinated media campaign followed, amplifying the rebuttal across multiple outlets. The interview Holmes has now given makes clear that the campaign rested on a legal and formal distinction that, while technically valid, leaves the substance of TorreNews's reporting intact.

What Solenta denied was that it had walked away from the domestic market as a company. What it did not deny, and what Holmes has now confirmed, is that Fastjet as a brand and commercial partner will not proceed with a Beira base. The two are separate issues, and their deliberate conflation formed the foundation of the rebuttal campaign. "We have not walked away. We are still in negotiations with the regulator and with the government," Holmes told TorreNews. The picture he described is nonetheless one of a partnership on hold: Fastjet, after assessing the costs tied to the mandatory Beira base, told Solenta it could not sustain the agreement on those terms. Solenta relayed that position formally to the IACM, the civil aviation regulator.

Solenta Aviation Mozambique holds the licence to operate domestic routes and has a brand licensing agreement with Fastjet Limited to fly under that commercial identity, as it did between 2017 and 2019 out of Maputo. It is that agreement that is now in question. Solenta has not ruled out entering the scheduled market under its own brand if negotiations with the regulator produce workable terms, while continuing to operate in the charter segment where it has been active since 2009.

The breakdown was set in motion by a technical and financial assessment Solenta conducted in Beira after receiving the licence with the unexpected base requirement attached. "When we got the licence, we were surprised. We did not refuse it, but we said: let us look at this carefully," Holmes said. Technical teams were deployed to Beira and their findings were presented to shareholders and formally submitted to the IACM. The assessment found that constructing hangars capable of accommodating the fleet would be required at an airport still undergoing renovation. Crew accommodation, maintenance logistics and supply contracts would all need to be set up from scratch in a market where current demand does not justify anchoring a primary base at that airport. "We needed to come back to the IACM and say: you have offered Beira, but here are our concerns," Holmes said. It was on the strength of that assessment that Fastjet told Solenta it could not proceed under the terms the regulator had set.

Regulatory uncertainty over fares is adding to the difficulty. IACM president Emanuel Chaves announced at the licence handover ceremony on 17 December 2025 that the authority would set minimum and maximum fare ranges within 90 days. That deadline has passed without any regulation being published. Holmes was unequivocal: "There is a regulation on minimum and maximum fares that is being deliberated right now." Without that framework in place, no business plan can be completed and no commercial partner can commit to an investment.

The government has asked Solenta to put forward concrete proposals that would allow the licence conditions to be adjusted to match the company's operational reality. Sources close to the negotiations say Maputo remains the preferred location for any eventual launch of scheduled services, though Beira is not being ruled out as a future strategic hub for connections to the centre and north of the country. No public indication has emerged that the parties have reached any definitive agreement.

As the standoff continues, a report aired by STV on 29 May 2026 provided the sharpest illustration of the broader context surrounding this case. The broadcaster's investigation found that two Embraer 190 aircraft acquired by the state as centrepieces of LAM's modernisation drive have been sitting idle in Johannesburg for six months without conducting a single flight. The chairman of Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique, the state entity involved in LAM's management, confirmed to STV that the aircraft remain in South Africa, citing repainting and a rebrand of the airline. "In the coming days you will see the planes, because the painting is already done," he said. Sources within LAM's technical management gave a different account: during the aircraft's extended stay in Johannesburg, serious mechanical faults were identified, including shortages of specialised lubricants, components requiring replacement and other unresolved defects, with some parts still not sourced.

The state has injected roughly 130 million dollars drawn from profitable public enterprises into LAM and spent 25 million dollars acquiring aircraft that remain grounded abroad with outstanding mechanical issues. At the same time, the regulator awarded the only private competitor a licence containing a clause that has proved operationally unworkable, stalling a private investment of more than 15 million dollars. The outcome is a domestic aviation market that recorded a 14 percent drop in passenger numbers in 2025, falling from 1,237,566 to 1,066,812, according to the IACM's own figures. Solenta's 22 May statement denied that the company had abandoned the market. It did not deny that, with a base in Beira, Fastjet will not move forward.