Author: DEOGRATIUS KAMAGI
AfricaPress-Tanzania: A number of international flights coming to Tanzania are expected to increase moderately in the coming days, the Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) has said. In fact, the Tanzanian skies look promising, as some of the airlines have resumed their routes to the country after the government reopened airspacefollowing a decline in Covid- 19 transmissions.
TAA Director General Eng Julius Ndyamukama told the ‘africa-press’ over the weekend that so far two passenger airlines have resumed operations to Tanzania. They are Qatar and Ethiopian Airlines. The TAA boss added that KLM Royal Dutch passenger flights are expected to resume flights on July 1, thisyear, a move that would also increase the flow of tourists into the country.
According to him, the Julius Nyerere International Airport has also received KLM and Swiss Air cargo flights, and other chartered flights, including Oman Air. “With the passage of time, we expect that the situationwill go back to normal, as it was before the outbreak of Covid-19 that forced most countries to close their borders and restrict movement of people,” he said.
To a large extent, the decision affected operations of passenger flights as most of them were forced to temporarily suspend their operations. On May 19, this year, the government announced a lift of the ban on international flights with the Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, Eng Isack Kamwelwe, saying that the decision had been reached after considering all important measures and the state of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
He said the government has conducted thorough investigations and evaluation of the novel Coronavirus as well as control measures over the spread of the disease.
In April, this year, the government imposed a ban on all international flights from landing into the country, as one of the measures for curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
The ban has since been lifted but the airlines are obliged to ensure that all passengers have medical certificates that clear them of coronavirus infection. The government has come up with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to ensure they protect both the public and visitors from the Covid-19 pandemic.
