Community airline is no longer,
Baada ya kumwaga uwaziri kampuni nayo yafa. hii inadhibitisha wazi kuwa operational cost zilikuwa zinatoka serekalini
Airline cancels Turkish plane leases
By Mkinga Mkinga
Community Airlines, a local firm, has suspended its operations for an indterminate period due to the state of its contracts with a plane leasing company.
The company's director Anthony Diallo said yesterday that the withdrawal of the company�s two jets leased from Kegagus of Turkey was a blow to frequent fliers who had quickly been won by community airlines services.
The move also dampens prospects of even lower airfares for travellers as the airline had ended dominance by two operators, Precision Air and Air Tanzania Co. Ltd (ATCL).
More than 30 employees are also uncertain about their jobs as the airline�s management put them on half salaries.
The director said they were forced to terminate the plane leasing contracts because the charges demanded were exorbitant.
Community Airlines was using two Airbus jets that are classified as speedier and wider in capacity for that category of passenger planes, and had already cut down fares in some of its routes.
Mr Diallo, a former minister, however said plans were underway to resume operations.
�We are working on delivery of other planes at cheaper rates to continue operating. We were paying $500 000 a month to Kegagus for each of the planes but another dealer is ready to offer them for $250, 000 each,� explained Diallo.
Diallo who is MP for Ilemela said the company was moving from wet to dry leasing of the planes. �In the first arrangement we brought in the planes complete with their crew and had no direct control over their schedules,� he elaborated.
He said that in dry leasing, the company would hire planes and employ its own crew and take direct control on expenditure and operations.
�We are in business and what we are doing is change strategy. We have got a company that will lease us aircraft at half the operational costs we incurred, and this may permit further reduction in fares," he affirmed.
Commenting on suspicions that Community Airlines had failed to pay out its debtors, including the Kegasus Company of Turkey, Mr Diallo said that is hearsay. Those owed by the company have to bring their invoices and the company will clear their debts, and of course that is business,he declared.
It was Community Airlines who terminated the Kegagus contract, with some of the workers given half salary terms while waiting for other planes to restart operations, he added
Source: The Citizen