PRECISION AIR ANNOUNCES DAILY FLIGHTS TO MBEYA
When on the 16th of January Precision Air, Tanzania’s premier airline, launched their flights to Mbeya’s revamped Songwe Airport, they cautiously announced that the new destination would be served four times a week, linking the commercial capital Dar es Salaam with this western Tanzanian municipality.
The airline’s strategy to connect the country by air, like it was never done before, however paid off beyond their wildest expectations and Linda Chiza, Precision Air’s Head of Marketing and Branding, yesterday announced to this correspondent that effective 12th of February the Mbeya route will be served daily with ATR turboprop aircraft.
At the same time she also confirmed that Mtwara, the oil and gas ‘capital’ of Tanzania, will see additional frequencies added as on that route too the demand was simply outstripping the available number of seats. As the airline operates both the ATR 42 and the ATR 72, there is added flexibility to move from the smaller 48 seat turboprop to the larger 70 seat version.
An aviation source in Dar es Salaam, contacted for a comment, had this to say: ‘Precision has a vision for the country. They have the right type of aircraft to fly to all those other towns where the big jets cannot land. They have more ATR’s on order and when they have them delivered they will fly more often to more places than any other airline in Tanzania’s history has ever done. Now that is what I call a service to the nation. Others come with big noise and then only fly between Dar and Kili or Mwanza. With Precision you fly to almost every corner of our country. And you get a full service on the plane and have no hidden cost when you buy your ticket at the advertised fare. Others make wild claims on fares and when you book you find a lot of extra charges or be told THAT FARE YOU NEED TO PREBOOK MANY WEEKS IN ADVANCE and then at the airport you pay extra still for other services like you baggage’.
Clearly Precision are doing something right somewhere as the airline continues to grow and the partnership with the region’s largest airline Kenya Airways has helped in many ways to become Tanzania’s own ‘Pride in the Sky’, pun fully intended of course. Watch this space for breaking and regular aviation news from the Eastern African region.
