Capacity fears hit airlines as festive season beckons

Dar es Salaam. Forget about  increased bus fares to the Northern Zone in December and think instead, of what it takes to buy an air ticket from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza, Mbeya and Kilimanjaro, among other places, during this period.

With almost no difference in charges among the three major operators Precision Air, fastjet and Air Tanzania, it is that time of the year when airlines cash in on the increase in the number of passengers who wish to travel to their various areas of origin and enjoy Christmas and New-year holidays with their kith and kin.

A quick look at websites for fastjet, Precision Air (PW) and Air Tanzania (ATCL), reveals that much of the seats for the period between December 5 (Saturday) and January 10, 2016 have already been sold. Fastjet flies to Kilimanjaro four times in a day while PW does so twice in a day.

A look at the fastjet website for instance reveals that much of what the airline terms as lowest fare seats – which are, in fact, almost the same as what one pays on other normal operators – between Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro have been sold for the period between December 5 and December 27. The same is true about flights to Mwanza where fastjet flies four times in a day while PW does so twice.

There is a similar experience for flights to Mbeya.

And, according to the general manager for fastjet in East Africa Jimmy Kibati, the airline is experiencing increased passenger numbers on these routes.

He said passengers were able to make their bookings in advance this year. “As is the norm because of the demand and business practice revenue management practiced by most airlines we tend to minimise all the tickets to the highest cost fares….Most of our flights from Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro, Mwanza and Mbeya are all fully booked and this leaves us with no alternative but to let other passengers look for other alternative means of transport,” he told BusinessWeek.

He said if the airline were assured that the increased demand would go on for another six months, it would have sought for alternative options, including leasing some more aircraft.

“However, the dynamics are very demanding, requiring high level negotiations with the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) to approve but by the time we conclude, the seasonal increases will have diminished,” he said. Similar sentiments were echoed by PW’s brand and marketing coordinator Mr Hillary Mremi who said the demand has increased tremendously especially for their Mwanza, Kilimanjaro and Arusha routes.

“While things were slow in October due to elections, we have seen a tremendous rebound of tourists and other passengers who want to travel upcountry for Christmas,” he told BusinessWeek, noting however, that the general expectation is that the demand will slowdown in February.

To cater for an abrupt increase in demand for air transport services, PW was, by Friday last week, looking forward to increasing the number of flights on the routes or at least deploy aircraft with bigger capacities. The company operates 42-seaters ATR 42s and 70-seaters ATR 72s.

“We may therefore decide to deploy an ATR 72 on the route where we normally fly an ATR 42 so as to accommodate an increased number of passengers…alternatively, we are sometimes forced to ‘borrow’ some frequencies from other destinations and fly, say four, instead of three on any of the routes where demand is high,” he said.

Air Tanzania’s tale is not different to its counterparts with their Mwanza, Mtwara and Kigoma routes currently in high demand compared to other months.

The ground handling manager, Mr James Mbago told BusinessWeek that their flights to Mwanza had, by Friday last week, been booked by 80 per cent, Mtwara by almost 100 per cent and Kigoma by 50 per cent.