Air Tanzania to operate second evacuation flight to India

Dar es Salaam. Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) will on Monday June 15 operate a second charter evacuation flight from Dar es Salaam to Mumbai to repatriate Tanzanian nationals stranded in India following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.         

The national carrier’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, is slated to leave Dar es Salaam for Mumbai via Delhi at 0600Hrs and arrive in Delhi at 1550Hrs local time.

It will then spend some few hours at Delhi before it departs for Mumbai at 1720Hrs, where it is expected to land at 1910Hrs.

The flight carrying Tanzanian nationals will then on the same day fly back from Mumbai to Dar es Salaam at 2040 hours and arrive at 00.10 hours.  

“We will also use Monday's opportunity to repatriate Indian nationals stranded in Tanzania due to the same reason,” ATCL managing director Ladislaus Matindi told The Citizen on telephone.  

However, Mr Matindi was not in a position to disclose a number of people to be repatriated.  

“Evacuation flight is not about the number of people, it is about saving people in difficult times,” Mr Matindi responded to a question on the number of Tanzanians to be brought back home on Monday.  

ATCL operated its first charter evacuation flight from Dar es Salaam to Mumbai in the evening of May 14 and returned home the following day.   

Countries around the world imposed travel restrictions to cub spreading of the pandemic, leading to grounding of most of the global airlines.

However, three weeks back Tanzania reopened its airspace to both scheduled and non-scheduled international commercial passenger flights following its closure on April 11 in the wake of the Covid-19.