NEW BOMBARDIER Q400NG’S READY FOR THEIR COMMERCIAL MAIDEN FLIGHTS
(Posted 15th October 2016)
The two recently acquired brand new Bombardier Q400NG aircraft are today expected to commence commercial flights across Tanzania, it was learned overnight from a regular source in Dar es Salaam.
Alongside an existing Bombardier Q300 will the two new aircraft help relaunch a number of domestic destinations which ATCL had to shelve in past years due to lack of sufficient planes on the fleet.
Notably will Air Tanzania now go head to head with their main rivals on routes from Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Mtwara, Zanzibar and Mbeya where Precision Air and Fastjet held a duopoly.
Social media comments in Tanzania – careful what you say when you live there lest one falls foul of the new media laws – have been spiking about the fare levels ATCL is proposing to charge, from information received just as much as their rivals do. Apparently sections of Tanzanians had speculated that ATCL on re-entry into the market would be considerably cheaper but they, as do the other airlines, face quite the same cost structures and pay the same fuel prices, handling, landing and parking charges.
They are also under Presidential and Ministerial orders to put their financial house in order and therefore probably quite unable to substantially lower fares without creating yet new holes in the company’s finances.
Happy Landings it is for the new birds, crews and of course the passengers.
