Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) has deregistered 208 aerodromes and completely banned any aviation use of such airfields.
Addressing a press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday, TCAA’s Managing Director Mr Hamza Johari said the move sought to improve aviation security and safety.
Thus, the decision to remove the aerodromes from national register stems from failure to observe regulations, security and safety measures needed to operate aircrafts’ offing and landing activities.
According to him, apart from such shortcomings, most of the aerodromes lack proper or official ownership as no individuals or institutions have claimed to own any of them.
“TCAA has established that the 208 were ditched, not maintained and the security and safety were at stake. On top of that, there are no individuals, private or public entity which claimed ownership of the aerodromes.
I therefore declare that the 20 Aerodromes as of today (yesterday) prohibited carrying out aviation activities,” stressed Mr Johari.
He mentioned regions with such aerodromes, with their numbers in brackets as Arusha region (32), Manyara region (30), Morogoro (14) while Kigoma had 13 with 16 found in Singida region.
Other regions are R uvuma, Mbeya and Tabora regions (with aerodromes 11 each) and Mwanza, Iringa and Mara regions (6 aerodromes each).
Kagera, Katavi, Coast, Shinyanga and Songwe regions each have below five aerodromes. Mr Johari also said TCAA had issued ultimatum up to 31 March 2020 to other operators of aerodromes to comply with regulations by ensuring that the airports and aerodromes they operate are registered.
The operators should also make sure that they have renewed their licences and met registration requirements as per parts II I , IV and V of the Civil Aviation (Aerodromes) regulations of 2017, he said.
They should also have paid registration fees and other payable levies. Apart from aerodromes, Tanzania has airstrips, and ordinary and international airports totaling 643.
