Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Zanzibar government is considering plans to construct a fourth terminal at the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (AAKIA), almost eight months after official opening of third terminal with the capacity of handling about 1.6 million travelers annually.
Zanzibar Minister for Infrastructure, Communication and Transport Dr Khalid Mohamed Salum said the move is geared to meet the demand of growing number of visitors.
“Due to increasing influx of tourists, holiday makers, and other visitors, we are almost beating the 1.6 million travelers’ target. We have quickly noticed that we need another larger space to handle more plane and travelers. Feasibility study for the fourth terminal is underway,” said Dr Salum.
He was speaking at the official opening of customer care services training for all staff operating at the AAKIA. The training was organised by the ‘Zanzibar Airports Authority (ZAA) with facilitators from the Dubai based company ‘dnata’ now operating at Terminal Three.
The dnata signed a concession agreement in November last year, with Zanzibar government, along with Emirates Leisure Retail and SEGAP, a joint venture between airport infrastructure and operations specialists Egis, and private equity fund manager AIIM.
Under the partnership, dnata oversees the operations of AAKIA newly built international terminal (T3), with SEGAP supporting ZAA in a management capacity.
Emirates Leisure Retail partnered with MMI as master concessionaire for all food and beverage, duty free and commercial outlets at T3.
The dnata provides it’s globally renowned, quality ground and passenger handling services to airline customers at the airport, ensuring safe and timely operations of flights and an excellent travel experience for passengers.
Minister Salum said that the ongoing reforms at the international airport, spiced by the top leaders; President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Hussein Mwinyi initiatives through the ‘Royal Tour Documentary’ has enabled the airport to have an influx of visitors using it and resulting to drastic increase in revenue from 2bn/- to 6.7bn/- in the first quarter of this financial year.
“Under the leadership of President of Dr Mwinyi, the government is also developing an airport at Nungwi popular tourists’ destination in Unguja North, and Pemba airport. We are also developing seaports- Malindi (to be turned into tourists’ port), Wete and Mkoani in Pemba while also constructing new seaports at MangaPwani, Kizimkazi, and ShumbaMjini,” he said.
He said that terminal one of AAKIA will be improved to serve as VIP lounge and private jet, and that the government is also developing other infrastructures including roads networks and has constructed 45 towers to improve communication
“The government is committed to all these plans and investing much as economic getaway. But it will be meaningless if services including customer care remain poor. The staffs at the airport must change mindset to accommodate the pace of development. We must provide standard services to our visitors,” said Dr Salum.
The acting Director General of ZAA Mr Seif Abdulla Juma said, “We decided to provide customer care services training to minimize complaints from customers or travelers’ about poor reception and services. We must win our customers by providing better services.”
Customer care services training facilitators Mr Tom Alwyn Jones- Managing Director, dnata Zanzibar, and Mr Paul Fraser- learning and development specialist at the company urged the airport staff to change and improve services.
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