FASTJET LOSSES QUADRUPLE TO OVER 41 MILLION US DOLLARS
(Posted 26th April 2019)
Usually well informed sources have, to a good part, blamed Tanzania’s regulatory hurdles put in the way of Fastjet – eventually prompting the airline to withdraw from the market and leaving future private investment in the sector in that country highly doubtful – for the massive rise in losses for 2018.
In 2017 did the airline show a loss of 11.2 million US Dollars, but for 2018 that figure rose to a staggering 41.2 million US Dollars, the highest yet in the historyi of the company.
Official sources in turn point to extraordinary write offs and in particular to the one off cost element incurred as a result of raising the share capital of the airline.
Without these elements would the estimated loss however still reached 17.3 million US Dollars, showing the underlying challenges the self professed pan African low cost carrier has to master vis a vis their market entry into Mozambique and the challenges of operating in Zimbabwe.
The source also confirmed that Fastjet’s market entry in South Africa is expected to take place in 2020, taking advantage of a FedAir AOC.
