ATCL eyes London trips after 19yrs

Dar es Salaam. Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) has secured a slot at the London-based Gatwick Airport, signifying a key milestone in the process by the national carrier to acquire a permit to land in the UK capital.

ATCL’s plan to resume flights to London comes 19 years after the airline ceased its flights to the United Kingdom due to huge losses it had incurred.

The company’s managing director, Mr Ladislaus Matindi, told The Citizen yesterday that direct flights to London were, hopefully, going to resume by the end of next year when ATCL hopes to have acquired the permit to land at Gatwick Airport.

The last time ATCL (by then ATC) flew to London was in 2000. It was landing in London via Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Eight years later, the company lost the International Air Transport Association (IATA) membership due to non-payment of clearing balances. IATA later banned the company from all international aviation transactions.

But late last year, ATCL had its IATA Clearing House membership reinstated, setting the pace for reinstatement in the trade association of the world’s airlines.

Should ATCL be permitted to land at Gatwick, Mr Matindi said, the company’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner will be operating on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, departing from Dar es Salaam through Kilimanjaro at 2010 (London time) and arriving at Gatwick Airport at 0535 hours.

“Ideally, we have secured a slot and not a permission. We are at the initial stage of the permit application,” noted the ATCL boss, explaining how the carrier would embark on the 7 to 8 hour trips to London.

For the airline to secure the permit, he said, conditions to be met include adherence to security and safety issues, as well as competence of staff.

ATCL last month launched direct flights from Dar es Salaam to Mumbai, India. Its other international destinations are Johannesburg in South Africa, Comoro, Bujumbura in Burundi, Entebbe in Uganda, Lusaka in Zambia and Harare in Zimbabwe.

ATCL’s plans to start flying to London comes six years after British Airways (BA) pulled its flight services between London Heathrow and Dar es Salaam for what was described as failure to operate the route profitably.

British Airways issued a statement, saying that the Dar es Salaam route was not performing well from a commercial perspective, so the airline decided to suspend it.

During that time, several stakeholders and economic analysts were quoted by media as saying the move by British Airways was going to lead to loss of revenue and other social benefits to Tanzania. According to the 2016 International Visitor’s Exit Survey Report, there were over 67,000 international tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom every year. With its six operational aircraft -- three Bombardier Q400, two Airbus A220-300 and one Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner -- ATCL seeks to profit from local and international flights.

ATCL’s local destinations are Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Bukoba, Dodoma, Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Mtwara, Mwanza, Songea, Tabora, Iringa and Zanzibar.