Air Tanzania brings market war to Entebbe ahead of Uganda Airlines revival

It was flags and chants as a 76-seater bombardier Q400 series owned by Air Tanzania touched Ugandan soil at 1:14pm on Sunday.

The inaugural flight took off from Dar es Salaam with 50 passengers to Uganda after a 10-year break.

Mr Emmanuel Korosso, the Air Tanzania chairman, said the return of the national carrier was critical for Uganda and Tanzania to enhance trade and tourism.

“Uganda and Tanzania have business together. We have a port in Dar es Salaam and Ugandans need clearance of their goods through the port. They need the shortest route to Dar so we have to exploit that so that we boost business between the two countries,” he said.

The launch of the flights comes at a time when Uganda and Tanzania are implementing oil and gas projects including the Hoima-Tanga oil pipeline and Tanzania-Uganda gas pipeline.

The airline suffered management problems, an issue that grounded its flights in the region. The loss made during the 10 year gap is yet to be assessed but Mr Korosso said it is “enormous.”

With four carriers so far, Air Tanzania is starting with four flights a week, from Dar es Salaam to Entebbe via Kilimanjaro and flight frequency will increase as demand rises.

This is expected to stiffen market competition ahead of plans to revive Uganda Airlines.

State minister for Transport, Mr Aggrey Bagiire, described the resumption of the commercial flights as very critical for improving the efficiency of air travel services and provide affordable air travel.
“Connection to Tanzania has been a challenge. We had to go through Kenya or Rwanda. Now people have an alternative,” he said.

RwandAir and Kenya Airways, have for years, dominated the routes with Ugandan passengers having to travel to Tanzania through Kigali and Nairobi respectively.