BabuK
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- Jul 30, 2008
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Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) is resuming service today after being grounded for the past nine months.
One of its planes, a Bombadier Dash 8 Q300 that was undergoing maintenance in South Africa, will kick of the service.
Speaking in a telephone interview, ATCL Acting Commercial Director Josephath Kagirya said the company would start with direct flights from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma then Tabora to Dar es Salaam using the plane, which has a capacity to carry 50 passengers.
The director said the company had two aircraft, one of which was still undergoing maintenance locally, adding that ATCL would be partnering with Jetlink Company from Kenya which would lease its aircraft with a capacity to carry 79 passengers as a back-up.
We have come to an agreement with the Kenyan company to provide us the service when needed while we're still repairing the other aircraft the plane would be used in case of emergencies, he said.
Infrustructure minister Omari Nundu, when speaking to reporters yesterday at a two-day Fifth Joint infrastructure Sector Review Meeting held in Dar es Salaam, said the company would be provided with sufficient and necessary resources for it to be independent.
We dont expect that a time will come for ATCL to come to the ministry begging for salaries for its employees we are determined to make the airline operate self-sufficiently, the minister noted.
In addition, Nundu urged for investiment in the air transport sector in order to promote competition and efficieancy.
He said with more air transport players fares would go down. The ten-year programme includes maintaining and improving of airports in the country to attract more air firms to invest in the sector.
Earlier, ATCL chief Paul Chizi said, We know that competitors are there in the market, but the good thing to note is that they have greatly benefited from ATCLs shake-up and we intend to regain our supremacy. The important thing here is to know what to do since customer loyalty is still there, he said.
Fierce local rivals to ATCL are PrecisionAir, Kenyas Fly540, Jet Link and Safari Plus. There are also three regional competitors led by Kenya Airways, the fast growing RwandaAir and Uganda Air.
Chizi said ATCL had a cost-sharing accord with Jet Link for the Dar-Nairobi route, with Zambias Air Zambezi for the Dar Lusaka-Harare, Dar Lusaka-Lilongwe and Dar-Lusaka -Lubumbashi routes as well Rwandair for Dar-Mumbai, Dar-Dubai Kinshasa and Dar-Lagos route whose franchise is held by ATCL.
He said they were at an advanced stage of negotiations with Turkish Airlines with intent to engage in cost-sharing on the Dar-Ankara - London, and Dar-Ankara - Guangzhou and Dar-Moscow routes.
We will benefit financially from such agreements and it will be a good opportunity for us to establish statistics on the number of our flyers forming a realistic basis for expansion of operations, he emphasized.
Established after the collapse of East African Community in 1977 with 11 aircraft, Air Tanzania remained a key player in the domestic air travel business and in regional destinations until in recent years when it suffered persistent financial and administrative problems, leading to frequent suspension of flights.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
