Precision Air adds domestic capacity to meet growing demand for air travel

PRECISION AIR ADDS MORE DOMESTIC CAPACITY

The sudden departure of Air Tanzania from the skies recently, when an emerging dispute over the continued lease of a B737-500 from a UAE based company prompted the plane to be grounded, has not had any significant impact on options for travelers in Tanzania. In fact, Precision Air, which already resumed operations to the Arusha Municipal Aerodrome with ATR aircraft, has now announced the use of larger aircraft on certain routes and traffic days and the addition of more flights between Dar es Salaam and Arusha and Mwanza.
A fifth daily flight to Arusha has been launched and on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will a B737-300 be operating to Mwanza, besides the regular flights on ATR 72 aircraft.
The airline has also announced that they will temporarily suspend flights to Johannesburg in September, to allow the aircraft to be re-deployed on domestic services, where a healthy growth in demand has been recorded in recent weeks. Passengers to Johannesburg can now use the double daily service of Kenya Airways out of Nairobi, to which both Precision and partner airline KQ connect several times a day from Dar and Kilimanjaro.
I have to speculate here but if they are bringing back a 737 from international service for use on domestic routes, it shows that they are ready for growth, ready to serve and ready to face the competition, if those should ever sort out their perennial problems and take to the skies again said a regular aviation source from Dar es Salaam when asked to comment on the developments before adding our government should accept that Precision is a Tanzanian airline, majority owned by Tanzanians as it is required under our law and regulations to maintain traffic rights, and that they should fully support them instead of flogging a dead horse. Let them stop wasting money on ATCL and rather invest in Precision where they can get dividends, not pay for constant losses and misappropriated funds.
The airline recently launched services to Lusaka via Lubumbashi, initially made difficult as the Congolese authorities in a game of cat and mouse tried to withhold traffic rights before being forced to swiftly remedy their blackmail like attitude when a major diplomatic row threatened to cloud bilateral relations.
The flights to Lusaka via Lubumbashi are reportedly doing well, with importers and exporters using the connection to link their businesses to the Port of Dar es Salaam.
Meanwhile it was also learned that Precision has halted operations into Kigoma and Musoma while work is being carried out on these aerodromes, but will resume flights as soon as the construction has been completed. Watch this space.