TURKISH TO GO DAILY TO DAR
A regular aviation source in Dar es Salaam has confirmed that Turkish Airlines will be moving from 5 flights a week to daily flights starting end of May this year. The airline is using a B737-900ER for the destination, connecting Tanzania – Turkish is also flying to Kilimanjaro on a different flight which then returns to Istanbul via Mombasa – to their global network of 185 destinations, besides 37 additional domestic destinations, one of the largest networks in the world. Now operating over 200 modern aircraft Turkish is a member of global market leader Star Alliance.
The source mentioned that Turkish saw an opportunity as the market is now preparing for the exit of British Airways at the end of March, a move never quite fully explained and reacted to with some level of disappointment if not anger by Tanzanians who enjoyed BA’s services for decades and, going by the word of one regular reader ‘felt dumped’. Other airlines have equally responded with the introduction of larger aircraft, like Emirates starting to bring their B777 on the route, lending credibility to the claims by Tanzanian officials that while the market for travel to and from Tanzania is there, a hidden agenda may have been at work for BA when they announced their withdrawal from the route. This notion however was rejected by a source from Nairobi, close to BA, who pointed at the mounting losses of IAG, the parent group of British Airways, which might have compelled them to consolidate routes in an attempt to save money by closing down low yield destinations.
Watch this space for regular and breaking news from Eastern Africa’s aviation scene.
