Tanzania finally suspends all international flights over coronavirus
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) announced suspension of all scheduled and non-scheduled international commercial passenger flights with effect from Saturday last weekuntil further notice.
This means that Tanzanians living abroad or foreign national living in Tanzania, who were planning to return home, cannot do so due to lockdown.
The decision by TCAA comeswhen the agony is continuing as air transport has been in shambles since February 2020 due to the Covid-19.
TCAA director general Hamza Johari was not available for comment as to why the decision was not taken earlier.
However, cargo flights crew members will be allowed on condition set by individual countries of destination including put under quarantine for the duration of their stay.
Tanzania had only Ethiopia Airlines which was operating the international passenger schedules three times a week.
Local airlines including Precision Air and Air Tanzania Company Limited have already suspended their international and regional schedules ahead of the TCAA announcement.
Precision Airline said it suspended its regional routes to Nairobi and Entebbe.
Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) also stopped flying internationally to Mumbai (India), Entebbe (Uganda), Nairobi (Kenya), Comoro, Harare (Zimbabwe), Bujumbura (Burundi) and Lusaka in Zambia since March this year.
ATCL managing director Ladislaus Matindi told The Citizen yesterday they were about to complete assessment of impact of the Covid-19 on their business.
He called for stimulus package to support the aviation industry through turbulence and get into recovery phase as other countries did to support their economies including air transport.
“Covid-19 is unexpected situation, markets are caught off guard,” noted Mr Matindi.
Precision Air chief executive officer (CEO) Patrick Mwanri said airlines operate on lean margins with zero profits.
He said many were not prepared or had financial capability to meet their fixed costs related to Covid-19 pandemic.
With the prolonged shutdown and nil operations, Mr Mwari added, these costs are piling up hence becomes a big burden when operations resumes.
“We only do domestic operations after closure of our regional routes of Nairobi and Entebbe. The domestic market is also shrinking as we see the increase of Covid-19 cases hence more opt for avoiding non-essential trips.”
“We have seven aircraft but we operate only two, five are grounded. With the trend, our revenue has been severely dropped.
He called for the government to allow its institutions to defer some fees, charges and due payments to easy airline cash flow and meet their operational costs.
Mr Mwanri also called for waive of penalties and interests on late payments, measures to relax bank loans payment terms for business directly affected and market stimulation package for post recovery period
To save jobs, he also suggested for allowing flexibility on labor laws to support temporary layoff/ suspension of labor contract, unpaid leave and pay cuts.
Swissport Tanzania CEO Mrisho Yassin commended the tough decision by TCAA to suspend international commercial passenger flights, but challenging the decision could be made earlier before the first imported case.
“In my opinion this is a right move to protect the lives of Tanzania, however, the decision came late,” noted Mr Yassin.
He is optimistic, the crisis will be fought to restart post covid-19, but the question is how long this take will?
“A number of businesses will collapse if the crisis goes beyond October 2020,” said Mr Mrisho.
Nas-Dar Airco general manager Miguel Serra said he was aligning with most of the countries to avoid imported infection.
“90 percent of our business is from international passenger aircraft operations. Until March 29 all of our customers grounded operations except for cargo business,” said Mr Serra.
Aviation expert John Njawa said the crisis could result to slow growth of confidence to traveling public to the destinations.
