FASTJET SET FOR ENTEBBE – KILIMANJARO FLIGHTS
(Posted 13th March 2015)
Fastjet has announced that they will be launching flights between Kilimanjaro International Airport and Entebbe at the 31st of March, extending the present Dar es Salaam to Entebbe service with the stop at JRO.
Arusha, some 50 kilometres away, is the seat of the East Africa Community and as such a centre of political gravity for the region. Travelers to Arusha have over the past 9 months had to contend with indirect flights via Kigali with RwandAir or via Nairobi with Kenya Airways / Precision Air and the newly restored option of nonstop flights will no doubt be appealing to many.
The combination of the two routes is also thought to be raising the loadfactors on the route for Fastjet, which had launched the Dar to Entebbe route last year but was looking for a passenger boost.
Only a few weeks ago did Fastjet launch flights from Kilimanjaro to Mwanza, giving travelers booking early the option to fly at a cost not much greater than a bus fare.
Fares charged will start from as low as US Dollars 50 one way PLUS TAXES AND REGULATORY FEES which in this case will amount to nearly as much, considering these elements on flights to Dar es Salaam, where the fees and taxes exceed the cost of the ticket.
There has, sadly for Fastjet, not been any movement on them getting landing rights in Nairobi for which the airline, designated on the route by the Tanzanian Civil Aviation Authority, has applied earlier last year. Also still stuck in government bureaucrazy, pun intended, is the airline’s application to set up a business in Kenya, where no Air Service Licence has been granted as yet.
Next on the horizon for Fastjet will be the launch of their operation in Zambia where the airline plans to fly from Lusaka to Johannesburg and on the domestic routes to Livingstone and other key Zambian towns.
Watch this space for breaking and regular aviation news from across Eastern Africa.
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Reblogged this on Ian Cox.