Air Tanzania set to resume Africa flights, inks deal with Qatar

By Rosemary Mirondo

Air Tanzania Company Ltd (ATCL) said yesterday that it is planning to resume its scheduled international flights in Africa this month.

Africa flights include Lusaka, Harare and Entebbe while its China route will be resumed in November. This comes after the firm announced resumption of scheduled flights between Dar es Salaam and Hahaya in the Comoros with effect from September this year.

The flights were suspended in March 2020 after The Comoros closed its airspace following an outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

ATCL managing director Ladislaus Matindi made the revelations to The Citizen yesterday. He said the company was determined to resume its full operations as life was returning to normal.

In another development, Qatar Airways has signed an interline agreement with Air Tanzania, providing passengers with additional seamless connections to domestic and international destinations in Africa. According to Matindi, the commercial arrangements tare for code-sharing between the two airlines.

The agreement will also enable passengers in Africa to travel smoothly between Africa and Doha and onward to destinations across Qatar Airways' wide network in Asia, the Pacific, America, Europe and the Middle East.

Late last January, the nation- al air carrier announced it was postponing its maiden flights from Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam to China, citing concerns over spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Later in March, ATCL also suspended flights to Lusaka and Harare, citing the same cause.

Meanwhile, Qatar Airways' passengers will benefit by accessing 19 domestic and international destinations in Africa, including Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Mwanza, Bukoba, Kigoma, Tabora, Mpanda, Mbeya, Songea, Mtwara, Dodoma and Iringa, all in Tanzania.

Others are Bujumbura, Entebbe, Harare, Lusaka and Hahaya.

A codesharing agreement also known as 'Codeshare' is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight numbers as part of their published timetable or schedule.

This article was originally published by The Citizen. [Photo: TAL Aviation]