AIR TANZANIA SET FOR LONG HAUL OPERATIONS AFTER GOVERNMENT MAKES DOWNPAYMENT FOR BOEING B787 DREAMLINER
(Posted 07th December 2016)
After purchasing 5 brand new aircraft from Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, among them three Q400NG’s and two of the recently launched CS300’s, has the Tanzanian government now made a further commitment to boost the operations of the national airline Air Tanzania.
It is understood that a 10 million US Dollars commitment fee has been paid to Boeing for the delivery of a B787-8 Dreamliner in June 2018. At that stage will all five new Bombardier aircraft be in operation on domestic and regional / African routes, helping to feed traffic into the airline’s long haul services.
While no confirmation has been received from Air Tanzania is it expected that the Dreamliner will be deployed on a route to China with added suggestions that a European gateway too could be on the drawing board.
Air Tanzania, best described as moribund as recently as a year ago with just one serviceable aircraft, a Bombardier Q300 turboprop, was for long plagued by inept and allegedly corrupt management with many former managers now facing court cases.
The Magufuli government however has restructured the board of the company as well as bringing new managers into the airline with clear instructions to reverse the flagging fortunes of Air Tanzania or else – and it is the ‘or else‘ the new team may fear most as President Magufuli does not appear to tolerate failure, in particular with so much money at stake.
A Boeing B787 Dreamliner costs anything from 220 million US Dollars upwards and the aircraft purchases from Bombardier are equally amounting to an estimated 270 million US Dollars for the five planes, two of which have already been delivered and entered service two months ago.
