AIR TANZANIA SUSPENDS FLIGHTS TO SOUTH AFRICA

Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA

One day after of Tanzania secured its aircraft; the Airbus A220-300 which was impounded in South Africa, the government has announced suspension of the Air Tanzania Corporation Limited flights to South Africa on what is termed as “xenophobic violence.”

The country’s Minister for Works Transport and Communication, Isack Kamwelwe, has announced a temporary suspension of scheduled flights to South Africa.

According to the Minister Air Tanzania was scheduled to fly to South Africa tomorrow Friday but it will not until the South African authorities commits to assure them of both the safety of the equipment and passengers.

“We have temporarily suspended flights until when calm is restored because we wouldn’t want to fly passengers to a destination with chaos,” said Kamwelwe who was addressing a gathering at Julius Nyerere International Airport.

In the meantime the Airbus 220-300 will continue plying domestic routes such as Mwanza, Songwe and Dodoma as per the timetable.

He further reiterated that the suspension has nothing to do with the recent seizure of the aircraft something that he says is now in the past.

The government owned company launched its maiden flight to Johannesburg South Africa from Julius Nyerere International airport in June this year flying the newly acquired Airbus 220-300 aircraft.

The August 24 seizure of the plane at Oliver Tambo airport in Johannesburg followed a court application by a retired farmer, Hermanus Steyn, to whom the Tanzanian government is to pay a compensation over a land expropriation to the tune of $13 million including interest.

Although Tanzania acknowledged the debt and initiated payments, the petitioner’s lawyers confirmed that since 2014, the farmer has not received any payment.

The impounding at the time was seen as a major blow for Air Tanzania, after inaugurating its Johannesburg services just two months earlier.

Air Tanzania has since been operating two types of aircraft on the route, a Boeing 787 Dream-liner with 240 seats and an Airbus A220 with 120 seats; it is still not clear which aircraft has been impounded.

Apart from operational direct flight from Dar es Salaam to Mumbai India Air Tanzania has received landing slots for the launch of flights to London's Gatwick Airport.

In preparations for the launch of flights to the United Kingdom later this year, next to resolve for the airline will be other related licences and the process is already underway.

The carrier is planning to operate three flights a week, using B787 Dream-liner, to fly from Dar es Salaam via Kilimanjaro to Gatwick, every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

At present, Air Tanzania has to meet European Union safety standards though, should BREXIT happen on October 31, it would be the British authorities to process the application.