FASTJET TANZANIA ADDS FIFTH AIRBUS A319 TO FLEET
(Posted 02nd February 2016)
The recent addition of flights by Fastjet Tanzania from Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro to Nairobi and from Johannesburg and Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar has utilized the current fleet of four Airbus A319 to the fullest. It is understood from usually well informed sources close to the airline that subsequently a fifth such aircraft was acquired and has been added to the fleet, allowing for further expansion of both destinations and frequencies.
Fastjet in Dezember, when making the announcement of a breakthrough to finally fly to Nairobi, also at the time suggested that sooner rather than later flights from Dar es Salaam to Mombasa and from Zanzibar to Nairobi would also be added. Still on the drawing board are planned services to the Comoros islands and while the reasons for the delay are known to this correspondent let it suffice to say that a very small number of individuals in the Comoros are responsible for the blockage under circumstances readers can well imagine.
Loadfactors, impacted by the elections in October last year, have also stabilized and are said to be on the rise again. Fastjet PLC in the UK however has since the start of the year discontinued their previous monthly publication of passengers uplifted, loadfactors and dispatch reliability as making those data public in the past gave the airline’s competitors a detailed insight into the operations while treating their own data like state secrets.
Sister franchise Fastjet in Zimbabwe yesterday launched flights to Johannesburg and there too another aircraft is expected to join the single Airbus A319 presently on the Zimbabwean aircraft registry to facilitate the addition of services from Victoria Falls to Johannesburg and the launch of additional regional routes out of Harare.
Meanwhile have airline sources remained noncommittal on the timeline for taking to the air out of Lusaka, where the audit for the issuance of an Air Operator Certificate is said to be nearly completed.
