Africa-Press – Tanzania. ● Mwinyi receives two more aircraft
IT was all cheers and ululations as the newly procured Air Tanzania Company Limited’s (ATCL) planes landed at Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (AAKIA) here yesterday.
Zanzibar President Dr Hussein Mwinyi led Union and Revolutionary Governments’ senior leaders, including hundreds of the islanders to welcome the Airbus A220-300 planes at the imposing AAKIA’s terminal three.
Speaking at the grand reception, President Mwinyi directed the national airline to devise strong business plans and strategies to excel in the air transport business.
“We want to see ATCL becoming a role model in the provision of excellent air transport services in the country,” Dr Mwinyi said, arguing that Tanzania still has huge business opportunities in air transport sector.
He told ATCL management to come up with innovative marketing strategies to encourage more Tanzanians to use air transport, which he said remains the safest of all transport modes.
President Mwinyi implored all service providers at the airport to improve efficiency, saying ATCL success relies on the performance of other institutions like immigration. He welcomed the national flag carrier to Zanzibar, saying the revolutionary government is determined to explore new tourism markets though lack of own airline had been impeding the efforts.
“Dependence on foreign airlines to bring us tourists sometimes hampers our efforts but with ATCL, we believe our work will be easy,” Dr Mwinyi said.
He invited the 44-year old airline to operate on Pemba route, saying the government is determined to improve Pemba airport towards transforming the clove rich island into a strategic business hub.
ATCL Managing Director Engineer Ladislaus Matindi said the airline is on the final stages of introducing connectivity routes—Dodoma to Mwanza and Zanzibar to Pemba.
He explained that under the airline’s strategic plan that ends next June, ATCL had planned and managed to open 15 domestic route destinations though it operated to only 13 centres pending renovation works at Iringa and Mtwara airports. Reintroduction of Mtwara route is scheduled by the end of this month.
Internationally, the company planned to fly to Bujumbura (Burundi), Entebbe (Uganda), Guangzhou (China), Hahaya (Comoros), Harare (Zimbabwe), Lusaka (Zambia), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Mumbai in India. However, it managed to operate in five routes and plans are underway to fly to Bujumbura, Guangzhou and Johannesburg, Eng Matindi said. Lubumbashi (Congo DR), Nairobi (Kenya) and Ndola (Zambia) are the international routes, which will soon be operated as preparations for Kinshasa (Congo DR) route continue.
The company is also analysing the Lagos (Nigeria) route. International Air Transport Association (IATA), which supports aviation with global standards for airline safety, security, efficiency and sustainability, has through its operational safety audit issued approval certificate to ATCL whose market share has increased from 2.5 per cent in 2017 to 73 per cent.
The company has as well increased its workforce to 644 from 171 employees, with pilots and aircraft engineers rising to 100 and 109 from 11 and 27, respectively, over the period.
The airline has seen its air hostesses increasing to 128 from 31, while other cadre employees have increased to 307 from 102.
The airline whose fleet has reached 11 aircraft has contributed to the government over 57bn/- in the form of various taxes. The just arrived airbuses have the capacity of carrying 132 passengers—12 and 120 in the business and economy classes, respectively.
They can fly six hours non-stop with flexible seats, which give maximum comfort to passengers. The aircraft arrived at a three-minute intervals with the first, Zanzibar touching the ground at 3:20pm ahead of Tanzanite, which arrived three minutes later—at 3:23 to receive a water salute from the fire and rescue brigade.
Meanwhile, President Hussein Mwinyi made several appointments yesterday.
According to the press release issued by the State House, signed by the Chief Secretary Eng Zena Ahmed Said, the new appointees include Capt Khatib Khamis Mwadin, as the new Deputy Head of the Anti-Smuggling Unit (KMKM), which is under the Ministry of Regional Administration, Local Government and Special Department.
