ATCL is broke, industry watchers say
CHARLES KIZIGHA
Daily News; Thursday,November 20, 2008 @21:15
The national flag carrier, Air Tanzania Company Limited, is literally broke, and is so heavily indebted to its key suppliers that it is now often forced to cancel its scheduled flights, it has been learnt. According to impeccable sources, ATCL is forced to buy aviation fuel from BP Tanzania with spot cash or stay grounded, all because it is currently owing the firm over $3m (3.6bn/-) in outstanding fuel bills.
The airlines fuel debt started accumulating during the first quarter of this year, and was flying on borrowed fuel until a few weeks ago when BP plugged off its credit facilities. Contacted for comment, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Mr Omari Chambo, said in a curt retort: The government is working on the issue
we are working on this matter
let us stop there.
He was reacting to reports of a possible arrangement under which ATCL would get fuel from an oil marketing company on condition that the government guaranteed the deal. The debt-ridden national airline buys aviation fuel with cash collected from its daily sales of tickets and freight charges, both now unreliable sources because of the airlines frequent flight cancellations.
According to the sources, the airline has entered what industry watchers call a deadly cycle: every time the sales are poor, ATCL fails to operate altogether or delays its flights and the travellers suffer in the end. The sources also say ATCL at times carries very few passengers because of its unreliable flights, costing the airline even more dearly.
In a number of occasions, an aircraft is available (filled with fuel enough to operate Dar/KIA/DAR) but you find only 10 passengers turning up
instead of 50
and may be 15 on the return leg, the sources add. Last Saturday and Sunday, the sources revealed that ATCL failed to operate its Dar es Salaam-Entebbe flight simply on account of huge operating costs. The daily flight to Johannesburg is unreliable for similar reasons.