Low-cost carrier expands aviation in Tanzania

Instead of exterminating other airlines, this low-cost carrier in Tanzania has brought flying to the proverbial masses, and the upsurge in their passenger numbers, against some odds, has not pushed other airlines out of business but opened new opportunities.

The domestic aviation scene in Tanzania is clearly getting more vibrant and many pundits actually credit the arrival of Fastjet in the country two years ago, which fundamentally shook up the industry in East Africa’s largest country.

Main rival Precision Air has refocused on domestic destinations which Fastjet cannot reach, Mbeya being a case in point where Precision opened the route but the airport expansion then allowed the use of Fastjet’s Airbus A319 and Precision then strategically withdrew, unable to compete over fares or speed, given their fleet comprises exclusively of ATR turboprop aircraft.

Only yesterday it announced that Precision had added Tabora as their ninth domestic destination, a sign that their management has made use of new opportunities arising from some substantial upgrading work done by the Tanzania Airport Authority (TAA). Over the past years, TAA has progressively embarked on the modernization and expansion of not only their main airports in Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, and Mwanza but has paid even greater attention to secondary airports and aerodromes, which can handle larger turboprops but not jets.

Apart from Air Tanzania, whose future again hangs in the balance, other airlines have also stepped up their game and notably Auric Air has expanded its number of destinations to thirty, covering most of the country’s national parks and also business destinations, using airfields closer to towns and strips which can accommodate the Auric workhorse aircraft, the Cessna C208 B Grand Caravan. Besides route expansion, Auric has also added frequencies to key destinations like the political capital, Dodoma, now served 6 times a week, made possible by the recent delivery of yet another state of the art C208 B.

Other safari airlines like Coastal Aviation, which is incidentally carrying Fastjet traffic from South Africa out of Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar, Flightlink, Regional Air, and Zanair among many others have equally taken the opportunities arising from the growing demand for flights, not just by tourists but also, and perhaps more importantly, by local clients.

Perhaps the aviation powers that be should take a leaf from this development in Tanzania and finally grant Fastjet (T) landing rights into Nairobi and approve the Fastjet PLC application for an air service license in Kenya to reshuffle the deck of aviation cards which seems to have been marked and needs urgent replacing to give more people access to flying at fares they can afford and trigger some self-examination among existing airlines vis-a-vis punctuality, service levels, fares charged, and destinations offered.