TCAA casts doubt on Fastjet strategy

What you need to know:

  • Fastjet Tanzania is yet to file application with the aviation authority for approval of any licences for new aircraft
  • Executive chairman Laurence Masha earlier said a Boeing 737-500 plane is expected in Dar es Salaam tomorrow.

Dar es Salaam. The revival plan for the grounded Fastjet Tanzania may run into crosswinds with the aviation industry regulator casting doubt the budget airline will meet its own deadlines.

The airline’s executive chairman, Mr Lawrence Masha, could also face competition for the regional routes from its former mother company, Fastjet PLC of UK, which has distanced itself from the turbulence the company was going through in Tanzania.

Fastjet PLC said earlier in the week that it would continue to operate the South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique routes despite the cancellation of Fastjet Tanzania’s international flights to the same destinations on December 02, 2018.

In a statement posted on its social media pages, Fastjet PLC said the Tanzanian operation was now independent following a management buyout and that it will be sorting out its challenges with the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) soon.

Mr Masha recently raised his stake in Fastjet Tanzania from four per cent to 68 per cent, virtually giving him the powers to make key investment and operational decision of the budget airline, which was flying high before the tumble.

Mr Masha, a former cabinet minister, has indicated he was courting potential partners in China, India, South Africa and Malaysia to invest in the airline.

He said he was eying to buy off the remaining 32 per cent of the stake owed by Fastjet PLC.

It has not been made public what the former minister paid to gain control of the airline, but in an interview he gave on Monday, Mr Masha revealed that he had bought the company with landing rights and not with aircraft.

Yesterday, TCAA director general Hamza Johari told The Citizen that they have not received any official communication from the cash trapped Fastjet Tanzania over its plans to acquire and bring in new aircraft.

Mr Masha announced on Wednesday that a Boeing 737-500 plane would arrive tomorrow ready to resume domestic and international flights. He said two, even three more aircraft would follow thereafter to help retain its 45 per cent market share and expand to other routes.

But Mr Johari said it would be impractical to expect Fastjet Tanzania to resume operations as anticipated without prior clearance by TCAA.

“As the responsible authority for issuing, renewing, varying and cancelling any air services licence, we have not received any official letter regarding Fastjet’s new development,” he said.

He said there are procedures to be followed when an airline wants to acquire a new plane, such as submitting standard certification, a permit to use the plane for offering transport services and an authorization letter from the civil aviation authority where the plane is coming from.

Mr Johari said, after submitting the documents to TCAA, it takes several days to verify them, before allowing the delivery of a plane, whether purchased or leased.

“If they knew that the plane is expected to arrive on Saturday (tomorrow), they would have filed the papers prior to their announcement,” Mr Johari said.

Fastjet Tanzania has been given until January 19, 2019 to resolve regulatory issues or risk losing their licence.

The lone Embraer aircraft the company was operating was detained by Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) over a Sh1.4bn debt it reportedly owed service providers and the regulator.

Earlier before the decision to suspend operations, Fastjet Tanzania application for more domestic routes was turned down by TCAA.

The airline was currently refunding passengers who had booked with them for December and January trips. TCAA said it could only start issuing new tickets once it cleared all the issues staked against it.

The company public relations manager Ms Lucy Mbogolo said the airline has sufficient cash to refund its passengers.

“We also have cases of those who booked earlier and want to continue waiting for us to resume our services,” she said in an interview with The Citizen yesterday.

Additional Reporting by Julius Mathias