LAM - Linhas Aereas de Mocambique has its beginnings in August 1936 as DETA - Direccao de Exploracao dos Transportes Aereos. With a newly built airport at Laurenco Marques DETA flew its first flight using a Junkers Ju52 tri-engined airliner on a scheduled route to Johannesburg. The fleet included the Ju-52, De Havilland Gypsy Moth biplane and De Havilland Dragonfly. After the second world war ended the fleet was changed to more modern Douglas DC-3 transports. By the early 1960s the turboprop Fokker F27 was in use as a Dakota replacement. DETA introduced pure jet equipment with the arrival of two Boeing 737-200s in 1969. Independence from Portugal was gained in the 1970s and in 1980 DETA was renamed LAM - Linhas Aereas de Mocambique . Soviet Ilyushin IL-62 equipment was used on the long-haul routes but the fleet was westernised by the 1990s with Boeing 737-300s and Boeing 767s being used for a time in the airline's new red-bird livery. Long-haul routes to Europe were abandoned in the mid 1990s although the important Maputo to Lisbon route is still flown with a Tristar 500 leased from LAM's partner; TAP -Air Portugal, in modern livery.