Mozambique Nacala international airport becomes a ghost zone

In Mozambique, a $200m airport was meant to be the second busiest in the country. The luxurious Nacala International Airport was inaugurated by President Armando Guebuza in 2014 with pomp, but three years after the $200m airport opened, it remains virtually unused.

At the time of the launch, it was expected that the airport could deal with 500,000 passengers and 5,000 tons of cargo a year. Today, the numbers are a far cry from the envisioned targets. The only airline using what has now become a ghost airport is Mozambique’s own carrier LAM (Mozambique Airlines). An article by BBC quotes that it is operating at only 4% of its capacity.

Nacala has been caught up in a corruption scandal involving Brazilian contractor Odebrecht. According to CNN’s Money the bribe cuts across four continents. Up to 12 countries were involved. Several presidents were caught up in the web. The Latin America’s largest construction firm coughed nearly $800 million in bribes to individuals between 2001 and 2016.