Air Tanzania (TC, Dar es Salaam) is looking to start flights to Europe by 2022, the carrier's chief executive, Ladislaus Matindi, has revealed.
Speaking to The Citizen newspaper earlier this week, Matindi said the launch would be made possible by the arrival of the carrier's second B787-8, due in early 2020.
“We are making these potential routes a priority due to low competition, but we are aware of the potential of European destinations. We hope to introduce flights to London by 2022,” he said.
Air Tanzania took delivery of its first B787-8 in early July and plans to deploy it into service to Mumbai International (India) in September followed by Guangzhou (China) in December.
Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows that since its arrival in East Africa on July 7, 5H-TCG (msn 64249) has been deployed exclusively on domestic Tanzanian routes covering Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, and Mwanza.
Air Tanzania also expects to take delivery of its two A220-300s, msn 55047 and 55048, from Airbus towards year-end following which they will be used to open up regional African routes.
Matindi added that on the back of its fleet renewal and growth plan, Air Tanzania expects to break even from 2023 onwards.
“As the result of concerted efforts made by the management and financial support from the government, we have managed to reduce annual losses to TZS4.3 billion Tanzanian shillings in 2017 (USD1.9 million) from TSZ14.2 billion (USD6.2 million) the previous year,” he said.
