Tanzania Shows Sustained Growth in All Aviation Sectors
 

By ABDUEL KENGE
THE EASTAFRICAN

THE AVIATION industry in Tanzania has been growing steadily the past five years as passenger, cargo and parcel aircraft movement have all increased, according to the 2003 report of the Tanzania Civil Aviation Agency (TCAA). 

The report, the latest by the agency, notes the safety record of Tanzanian airspace, saying there has been no accident involving large aircraft, and only four involving small charter planes at small aircraft scattered around the country.

The country's safety despite the expansion of aviation activities has been attributed to the purchase and installation of the controversial $40 million radar system, liberalisation of the transport subsector and the new government policy of involving the private sector in the development and operations of the aviation industry. 

Tanzania has 368 airports of varying sizes from international ones to airstrips that serve small charter planes. There were 29 local commercial air operators with a total fleet of 95 aircraft of various sizes at the end of 2003.

Despite growth in traffic and services, the civil aviation industry in Tanzania, by any standards, is small one, according to a report prepared by Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA). 

The Tanzania government operates 62 large airports, five of which are large enough to handle large aircraft such the Boeing 737 and bigger, including the Dar es Salaam International Airport (DIA), Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA), Mwanza, Mtwara and Zanzibar airports.

Only four accidents were recorded between 2002 and 2003, but there were no deaths as they involved small planes at airstrips hitting wild life or tree tops as they approached airports.

As a result of the increased number of operators, international and domestic aircraft movement and passenger traffic in Tanzania registered a growth of 10.9 per cent and 12.1 per cent respectively in 2002 and 2003. A total of 22,935 international traffic movements were recorded in the country in 2003 compared in 20,037 movements in 2002, representing a 14.5 per cent increase. 

"This is due to the increased frequency with which the foreign airlines such as Emirates, Gulf Air, Oman Air and Kenya Airways [fly into the country]," the report notes. International commercial aircraft movements, including scheduled, non-scheduled and freight services, also increased by 23.3 per cent, from a total of 17, 214 movement in 2002 to 21,229 movements in 2003.

Correspondingly, international passengers carried increased from 643,612 in 2002 to 690,640 in 2003, representing an increase of 12.1 per cent, while international freight and mail handled in the country increased to 30,716.9 tonnes in 2003, up from 25,139.6 tonnes handled in the previous year.

Thanks to the export of fish fillets from Lake Victoria, freight from Mwanza airport increased by 37.8 per cent, from 10,345.5 tonnes in 2002 to 12,235.5 tonnes in 2003.

"With the expansion in operations, especially by the Air Tanzania Company Ltd (ATCL), the successor to Air Tanzania Corporation (ATC) and Precisionair, movements at domestic airports increased from a total of 47,985 movements in 2002 to 50,964 in 2003, equivalent to a 6.2 per cent increase," the TCAA report says.

ATCL is affiliated to South African Airways (SAA), which took over the former state airline, while Precisionair has entered into a partnership with Kenya Airways to strengthen the country’s aviation industry. There have been no other linkages by other aircraft operators apart from increased flights by scheduled airlines. The international airlines that fly into Tanzania include KQ, KLM, British Airways, SAA, Oman Air, Swissair, Air Malawi, Ethiopian Airlines, and Royal Swazi.

Overall domestic passenger traffic in Tanzania went up by 16.5 per cent as it handled a total of 830,551 passengers in 2003, up from 712,913 in 2002.

As the number of international and domestic flights, aircraft and passengers increase, the Tanzania government becoming concerned with development of air transport. It is now planning to build a ultra-modern international airport on the outskirts of Dar City, while the $9 million Mbeya airport is fast getting completed in southern western Tanzania to cater for transit flights to Central and Southern Africa as well as southern Tanzania.

The government is at the same time making improvements to airport security and the quality of services for the convenience of passengers. In compliance with the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) during initial auditing in April 2000, Tanzania's lack of implementation was 35.94 per cent compared with 31.71 per cent, the global mark. However, during the follow-up mission in December 2003, the country’s compliance with critical ICAO elements of a safety oversight system was 1.43 per cent, the lowest in the regional. 

Meanwhile, Kenya Airways has cross-listed its shares on the Dar es Salaam Stock exchange (DSE) since October 8. 

The listing was made possible following authorisation by the Tanzania Capital Markets and Securities (CMSA) and DSE, which granted approval to Kenya’s national carrier to cross-list the whole of its 461,615,484 shares on the DSE.

DSE chief executive officer Jonathan Njau said the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) gave an exceptional approval for lifting capital account requirement for KQ listing, which will allow Tanzanian investors to invest in financial markets outside the country’s borders.

The group managing director of Kenya Airways, Titus Naikuni, said in Dar es Salaam late last month, "Our board of director is pleased with the approval by the market regulators in Tanzania. We are proud of being the first foreign company to be listed in Dar es Salaam – if you can call Kenya a foreign country."

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