She carries both passengers and freight, and calls at major towns on both the Malawian and Mozambican coast, as well as at two islands of the lake (Likoma and Chizumulu).

While the ferry is often late (reportedly by as much as 24 hours or more)[1] and has sometimes broken down[2] she remains the most important means of long-distance transport for the people living on the coast of the lake.

[6] When Ilala has been out of service for maintenance, she was usually replaced by a companion, newer ferry called MV Mtendere (which means "peace" in Chewa), which otherwise only cruises the southern part of the lake.

[9] British historian, traveller and writer Oliver Ransford thus describes life aboard the MV Ilala in his book Malawi, Livingstone's Lake: Each day on board, amid the excited bell ringing, siren shrieks and hooting that seem inseparable from all maritime arrivals and departures, laughing crowds of Malawians line up on the Ilala's deck to disembark, cluttered up with baggage that includes bicycles, cages filled with squawking fowl, sewing machines and even tethered goats.

They are ferried ashore in lighters to return an hour or so later crammed with another batch of passengers who quickly settle down in the cramped quarters to cards and singing and sleeping and the preparation of meals in little cooking pots.