Air Tanzania to commence flight operations next weekend

AIR TANZANIA TO RESUME FLIGHTS NEXT WEEKEND

Following the delayed arrival of their leased B737-500 over the weekend has a regular aviation source in Dar es Salaam confirmed that ATCL is intent to resume operations within a week, now putting final touches on schedules, crew planning and a last ditch sales and marketing effort, to have their single plane fly with passengers and not just as an empty exhibit.
There is speculation in the market now which domestic routes will be launched first, thought to be Kilimanjaro, Mwanza and perhaps Zanzibar plus the countrys capital Dodoma, as whispers are going along government corridors to start booking tickets for civil servants and government officials on ATCL again, moving them away from Precision Air which has faithfully served all Tanzanians at times when Air Tanzania had not a single operating plane available and was a shell of an airline. They cannot put it in writing of course but there are rumours which claim that government business must be booked with ATCL, even though they will remain unreliable with only one aircraft and no schedule has been published until now. That shows that their marketing efforts are lagging behind. If they want to start operations next weekend, and there is still no schedule, how can potential passengers even know where the fly and when they fly commented a regular aviation source from Dar es Salaam.
ATCLs management in the meantime was talking big on arrival of the aircraft, proposing to fly to Dubai within three months, causing incredulous looks according to another source present at the arrival of the aircraft, when in his words they should talk first about Nairobi, Entebbe, Kigali perhaps before they talk of that one jet flying to Dubai. Going to Dubai each way takes over 5 hours, plus time on the ground of say 2 more hours, so how then can they maintain a domestic schedule on days they go to the UAE? They are excited to have a plane again but really, they are getting ahead of themselves once more. Let them prove to us they can operate a sustainable schedule within Tanzania before looking at the region instead of day dreaming about Dubai.
It is hoped that ATCL will release details soon on their recently launched website on schedules and destinations via www.airtanzania.co.tz and embark on a sales and marketing blitz, as otherwise it will be hard for them to fill the 12 business and 96 economy class seats in their leased B737-500. Wherever they go though, Happy Landings.