TANZANIA: Air Tanzania To Commence Regional Flights

Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL), is planning to start flying to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

The airline’s managing director, Mr Ladislaus Matindi, revealed the company’s plans during the company workers’ congress, saying all routes would be active from the next financial year.

There is a significant improvement since the government started reviving ATCL and what we are currently targeting is to improve delivery of services and increase the number of routes, he said.

The workers congress’ chairman, Mr Emmanuel Koroso, said ATCL is an established airline, but it faced financial challenges that affected its overall business operations.

Initiatives by the government to revive ATCL are commendable, but we are facing some challenges that can only be resolved through dialogue, Mr Koroso said.

He mentioned some of the challenges as changing the working culture for some of the employees, which will help them compete with other foreign airlines.

Mr Koroso also said shortage of human and financial resources was also making it difficult for the airline to run efficiently, but he called on the employees to work hard.

Air Tanzania offers a sole international route to Moroni, Comoros and 12 domestic routes, including Bukoba, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Mtwara, Mbeya, Mwanza, Songea, Tabora and Zanzibar.

The carrier manages a fleet of four aircraft consisting of one Bombardier Q300 and three Q400 airliners.

Further, the company expects to add two more Bombardier CS300 and one Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to its fleet.

They will arrive in the country later this year, according to the Tanzania's State house director of communication, Mr Gerson Msigwa.

Boeing reported recently on its official website that the United Republic of Tanzania has ordered one 787-8 Dreamliner, which is valued at $224.6 million.

I am pleased to welcome Air Tanzania as the newest member of the Dreamliner family, said Mr Van Rex Gallard, the Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president for Latin America, Africa & Caribbean.

Tanzania has received its third aircraft of the six that President John Magufuli administration plans to acquire in order to revive State-owned Air Tanzania.

On Monday, the third aircraft touched ground at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) on Monday.

The plane, a Bombardier Q-400, touched ground at 5.07 PM, with President Magufuli gracing the event to receive it.

The government has purchased the plane for $32 million from Canada's Bombardier Aerospace.

Two years ago, Tanzania developed a programme to revitalise its national carrier, Air Tanzania.

The programme included purchasing six new aircraft between 2016 and 2018, payment of debts and provision of start-up capital, improvement and modernisation of business systems.

We will receive three more aircrafts. This time, jets. We will have a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and two Bombardier C300 series. They will arrive before the end of this year, President Magufuli said.

On Monday, the president also laid a foundation stone for installation of four radar systems in the capital Dar es Salaam.

The radars are to be installed at the JNIA, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza and Songwe airports within 18 months. The project is part of the Tanzania's Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) strategy to improve civil aviation in the county.

The project will also facilitate search and rescue operations in case of emergency or air accidents.

This will enable the country meet the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)'s standards and guidelines, TCAA director-general Hamsa Johari said.

Air Tanzania was established as Air Tanzania Corporation (ATC) on September in 1977 after the collapse of the regional East African Airways.

Since then, the airline had been operating at a loss and depending on government subsidies.

The airline lost all its regional and international routes after grounding its aircraft which included Nairobi, Johannesburg, Jeddah, Milan, Frankfurt, London and Mumbai.

Meanwhile, A Tanzanian minister says women participating in the Miss Tanzania beauty pageant should be considered for employment at the State-run airline Air Tanzania (ATCL).

Information, Culture, Arts and Sports minister Harrison Mwakyembe argues that by recruiting them, the beauty competition will be seen as a bridge to success for Tanzania’s beautiful ladies.

Dr Mwakyembe spoke on Saturday while officiating this year’s Miss Tanzania's pageant.

He said he believes participants in the beauty contest have all the criteria to be recruited at Air Tanzania, insisting that he would push for their employment at the national carrier.

All they need is to undergo a three-month training at the National Institute of Transport before joining the ATCL team, he said.



Tourism Observer

UGANDA: Precision Air To Relaunch Entebbe Flights

Tanzania Precision Air services Plc, the only publicly quoted airline company in Tanzania listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, has announced their intention to relaunch flights to Uganda through the Entebbe International Airport.The scheduled flights are expected to start from 01st July 2017.

The announcement which was made an hour ago stated that Precision Air will operate four flights per week with two nonstop flights from Dar es Salaam and two services routing via Kilimanjaro.

Commenting on the relaunch, Precision Air’s commercial Director Mr. Robert Owusu, said that the decision to relaunch flights to Entebbe came after a market study which revealed that there was significant demand for flights between Tanzania and Uganda after rival Fastjet pulled out of the route in early December last year.

Apart from the business relationships Tanzania and Uganda have a very rich history and we are going to honor that history by connecting the two countries through our services. We will start with four flights per week every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Passengers between Tanzania and Uganda should expect affordable and reliable flights he said.

Precision Air suspended flights to Entebbe back in 2013 during the route rationalization process and network restructuring. Mr. Owusu said that after the company reviewed their decisions taken at the time they concluded that Entebbe was a worthy addition to Precision Air’s already established extensive network on domestic routes and to Nairobi.

'Tickets sale is expected to commence on the of 10th March 2017 and passengers can book either directly by visiting the our website, our sales offices or through their preferred travel agents. We encourage early booking for best fares and we remind our passengers to take advantage of our online booking for discounted fares' Mr.Owusu added in closing.

Precision Air is currently the only IATA member in Tanzania and has recently announced a codeshare agreement with Etihad allowing the airline to offer more connection for passengers. Operating from Dar es Salaam does Precision Air fly to Arusha, Bukoba, Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Musoma, Mtwara, Mwanza, Tabora, Zanzibar and Nairobi and from July onwards also to Entebbe again.

Details about the opening of a Precision Air office in Uganda will be announced shortly here, so keep watching this space for breaking and regular aviation news from across the Eastern African region.

TANZANIA: Precision Air To Fly To Pemba May 2016

Precision Air, Tanzania's only publicly quoted airline, has confirmed that Pemba, the second largest island of the Zanzibar archipelago, will be added to their domestic network come 24th of May, using an ATR turboprop aircraft.

The island will initially be served three times a week, in conjunction with flights to Unguja, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The flights are expected to boost both tourism and trade between the Tanzanian mainland and Pemba and also makes it easy to fly from Unguja to the sister island.

Precision currently flies from its hub in Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Mwanza, Mtwara, Kigoma, Tabora, Musoma, Bukoba and Unguja / Zanzibar and Pemba will be the 11th destination across their domestic route network.

Precision Air is part owned by Kenya Airways and provides essential feeder services to flights then connecting passengers via Nairobi into the KQ network across Africa, Europe, the Gulf, India and the Far East.

TANZANIA: Precision Air Returns To Musoma

Precision Air just announced their imminent return to Musoma, after halting services two years ago due to the poor conditions of the runway and apron which led to damage to one of their ATR aircraft. Following major improvements made by the Tanzania Airport Authority has the airline, after assessing the status of the airport, agreed to resume flights with immediate effect.

The Dar es Salaam to Musoma flights will operate every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for the time being, joining 10 more Precision Air destinations across the country and beyond, those being Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Bukoba, Tabora, Kigoma, Mtwara, Nairobi and now Musoma.

Precision Air’s Commercial Director, Mr. Robert Owusu said that the move was triggered by the demand in the market. He stated that the flight has been positioned to cater for passengers who had to drive from Musoma to catch flights in Mwanza. ‘We had temporarily suspended the Musoma route due to the airport’s unfavorable conditions which had caused damage to the aircraft.

Since then, there have been some improvements made to the airport infrastructure that make it safe for our aircraft to land and take-off from there. As service providers, we also understand the inconveniences that passenger from Musoma had to go through by driving for about 4 hours to catch flights in Mwanza. We believe our flights to Musoma will not only stimulate trade in Musoma but also the tourism industry’.

Precision Air operates an all ATR aircraft fleet comprising both the ATR 42 and the larger ATR 72 models which are well suited to fly in and out of secondary and tertiary airports and aerodromes.