Fastjet still awaits clearance for Nairobi flights as results again improve

ANOTHER RECORD MONTH FOR FASTJET’S TANZANIA OPERATIONS

(Posted 09th October 2014)

September ended for Fastjet with a record breaking number of 57.756 passengers carried and a loadfactor of overall 74 percent, up nearly 80 percent compared to the same month a year ago.

Punctuality, compared to August, reduced slightly to 88 percent of all departures leaving within 15 minutes of the published times.

All eyes are now on the performance of the newly launched route to Uganda, were flights were at the end of September doubled from two to four a week, to establish how well the Ugandan and Tanzanian markets have taken up the nonstop flights between Dar es Salaam and Entebbe. Also in October will the airline increase flights from Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro.

Notes:

1. "Passengers"are sold seats flown, excluding infants. Fastjet bookings are generally non-refundable.

2. "Load Factor"is the number of ‘passengers" as a percentage of the number of available seats flown.

3. "on time"– arrival earlier than or within 15 minutes of schedule

Said Ed Winter when announcing the latest operational data as required under the London Stock Exchange rules where Fastjet is a publicly quoted company: ‘I am delighted to see such strong total passenger numbers and high load factor for September compared to August, a peak travel month. Our capacity will continue to grow during October with increased frequency on the Entebbe and Kilimanjaro routes and we expect to see an increase in average utilisation per aircraft to 10.2 hours, closer to our target of 11.7 hours’.

Meanwhile is the airline still waiting to receive regulatory approvals for flights between Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, an application reportedly kept pending by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority for several months now, a situation which has started to anger their Tanzanian counterparts which designated Fastjet for the route to Nairobi.

‘It is a game of cat and mouse the Kenyan regulators are playing, just like the South African’s did last year when they suddenly demanded additional submissions and documents on the eve of the inaugural flight. We know there is pressure from Kenyan airlines to keep Fastjet off the DAR – NBO route for as long as possible. However, if they do not grant those traffic right quickly, Tanzania may well retaliate and invoke countermeasures. It is not in the spirit of East Africa. You often blame us in Tanzania to be stumbling blocks but in this case it is obviously the Kenyans who are not playing ball’ said a regular aviation source from Tanzania, not wanting to be named.

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