Mozambique: delivery of the Chongoene airport, built by China, is scheduled for this month
In October 2018, Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Chongoene Airport in the south of the country with China's ambassador to Mozambique, Cui Aimin. The work, which was initially expected to last 36 months, was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The construction of the Chongoene airport, which serves the tourist and seaside town of Xai-Xai, capital of the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, is expected to be completed by the end of this September 2021. According to Club of Mozambique, this is what the president of Aeroportos de Moçambique (ADM), Emanuel Chaves, said during a visit to the construction site on 24 August. At that time, the work was about 95% completed. Currently, the firefighters, administrative and technical staff for the operation of the platform located in the province of Gaza, southern Mozambique, are in training. It should be recalled that the construction site of the Chongoene airport, launched in October 2018, was initially scheduled to be delivered on March 30 (after 36 months of work).
Instrument calibration flights were to take place in April 2021, and the actual commissioning of the platform the following month, in May. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down the work. In April 2020, Alberto Matusse, the provincial director of Transport and Communications, explained that the companies involved in the project had prevented the return to Mozambique of Chinese workers who had gone to their home country on vacation or to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The Chongoene airport project, being carried out by China Aviation International Construction and Investment Co Ltd, is being funded entirely by a $65 million grant from the Chinese government. With a runway of 1800 meters, it is designed to accommodate 220,000 passengers per year.
