FASTJET SET TO ANNOUNCE MAJOR UPSCALING OF FLIGHT FREQUENCIES
(Posted 09th August 2015)
While Fastjet will only confirm schedule changes effective 14th of September early next week has it nevertheless been ascertained from sources outside the airline that a number of key frequencies will be raised from the present number of flights.
Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg will go daily while the flights from Dar to Lusaka and to Harare will be combined and also become a daily service. It is understood that the airline will have fifth freedom rights between Lusaka and Harare. The recently introduced twice a week flights to Lilongwe / Malawi will be doubled to four, reflecting a sharp rise in demand for seats.
On the domestic front will Mwanza now up frequencies to five daily flights while Kilimanjaro will be upped to four a day. Mwanza to Kilimanjaro will become a daily flight too.
With domestic fares starting from US Dollars 20 one way PLUS TAXES and international flight fares starting from US Dollars 50 one way PLUS TAXES has Fastjet, at least for those booking early to qualify for the lowest fares, made air travel affordable for entirely new market segments and the success in terms of load factors and passenger numbers speaks for itself.
Besides Tanzanians, South Africans, Zambians, Zimbabweans, Malawians and Ugandans, all linked by Fastjet to Dar es Salaam, are only the Kenyan travelers left out of the cheap fare revolution as the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority continues to refuse granting traffic rights for the Dar es Salaam to Nairobi route and has until now blocked the application to establish Fastjet Kenya.
In a related development will Fastjet over the coming weeks launch operations from Harare as the audit by the Zimbabwe Civil Aviation for the issuance of an AOC, short for Air Operator Certificate, is now almost complete, as it the case too in Zambia. One additional aircraft, the fourth Airbus A319, has already joined the fleet and a fifth such aircraft is presently being outfitted and painted ahead of being deployed.
For breaking and regular aviation news from Eastern Africa look no further but simply watch this space.
