Having completed the revamping of Air Tanzania's passenger fleet with Dash 8-400s, A220-300s, and B787-8s, the Tanzanian Government is now considering acquiring dedicated freighters for the airline.
According to The Daily News, the Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, Isack Kamwelwe, said during a recent tour of a fish processing facility along the shores of Lake Victoria that government intends to introduce at least two freighters to help bolster exports - that of fresh produce in particular.
“We have now decided to utilise fully the services of our vibrant Air Tanzania Corporation and in the same spirit, we want to handle all cargoes right from Mwanza and uplift them directly to the markets,” he said.
“We are going to involve the private partners in securing investors in the cargo business and I would like to challenge the business partners to take full advantages of ATCL services instead of going for expensive alternative routes. I’m glad that five fish processing industries have agreed to use ATCL in exporting their products."
Though it is the second largest economy in the East African Community, Tanzania does not, at present, have any largescale locally-based cargo carriers to service either the domestic or international market.
According to the ch-aviation schedules module, out of Dar es Salaam, Martinair (Netherlands) (MP, Amsterdam Schiphol) offers weekly uplift to Amsterdam Schiphol via Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta while South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) offers a weekly service to Lusaka.
