Fastjet ‘temporarily’ suspends Dar es Salaam – Johannesburg flights

TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT – THAT IS THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

(Posted 08th August 2017)

Dar es Salaam to Entebbe – Gone
Dar es Salaam to Nairobi – Gone
Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg – Temporarily suspended

Vanessa Perumal must have felt mocked after getting her response to the initial question by Twitter when she asked if there was a Johannesburg to Dar es Salaam flight only to read ‘Where are you flying from?‘ before eventually Fastjet owned up and admitted that their flights on the route have been suspended ‘temporarily‘ due to what the airline called operational reasons.
Similar reasons were advanced in late November last year when Fastjet at the time, with very short notice, also axed their services from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi and Entebbe, leaving perplexed if not outright angry passengers behind to fend for themselves.
At the time, as reported here, were lack of suitable aircraft cited as secondary reasons, nothing new however given that the Airbus A319 was for long seen, and mentioned here, too large for many of the airline’s routes.
Notably has Fastjet also not used their main website portal to advertise the fact that the JNB DAR route has been suspended while their info box for ‘Latest‘ simply shows ‘Cancellation and Delay Information – There are no disruptions at the moment‘ testing the goodwill of their passengers once again with nebulous language if not outright concealment.
Nico Bezuidenhout and his team had received much advance thumbs up reporting but such inexplicable behaviour no doubt casts doubts over just how serious they are when passengers are jerked around like this?
Meanwhile has a regular aviation source in Dar es Salaam already indicated that a revived Air Tanzania could very well step up to claim the route rights between Dar, Entebbe and Nairobi, leaving Fastjet in the regulatory cold should they ever wish to resume services. A similar situation could happen also for the Johannesburg route especially when ATCL receives the first of two Bombardier C300’s, an ideal aircraft for the distance should Fastjet not resolve their aircraft issues on the double.
Watch this space for regular and breaking aviation news from the wider Eastern African region.

1. Vanessa Perumal? @vanessaperumal Aug 7More

   Vanessa Perumal Retweeted fastjet

   Hi from Joburg to Dar is there a flight

   Vanessa Perumal added,

   fastjet @fastjet
   Replying to @vanessaperumal
   Hi@vanessaperumal,my apologies for the late response. Please advise where you are flying from and we will be happy to assist. CM

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fastjet? @fastjetFollowing

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Replying to @vanessaperumal

Hi@vanessaperumal , our route JNB-DAR has been temporarily suspended due to operational changes. We hope to resume soon. CM

12:47 PM – 7 Aug 2017