Airline confirms relaunch of Dar-Tabora route next week

Passengers board a PW aircraft at Dar es Salaam’s Julius Nyerere International Airport. PHOTO | FILE 

By Alex Malanga,The Citizen Correspondent

In Summary

• The 24-year-old airline suspended its flights to Tabora in 2009 due to unfavourable conditions of the airport

Dar es Salaam.  Precision Air (PW) will start flying to Tabora once again on May 15 after a six-year suspension.

The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE)-listed firm said in a statement yesterday that it will operate flights from Dar es Salaam to the newly renovated Tabora Airport every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The 24-year-old airline suspended its flights to Tabora in 2009 due to unfavourable conditions of the airport which posed risk to passengers and the aircraft.

But the firm’s commercial director Robert Owusu said in a statement yesterday that in line with its turnaround plan, PW seeks to open open up the country.

Besides, Tabora residents have also been requesting the company to re-start flying to the destination.

“Recently, we have witnessed tremendous improvement in our services after implementation of few measures from our five-year turnaround plan. We have been increasing our network and we feel this is the right time to launch the Tabora route,” he said.

He thanked the government for renovating the Airport.

According to the statement, Precision Air will also connect Tabora to Kigoma. The firm’s marketing manager Azda Nkullo said Precision Air would fly from Dar es Salaam to Tabora and back to Dar es Salaam via Kigoma. “This route is designed to carter for all government and business activities in the western regions. We understand there is high traffic demand towards Dar es Salaam – the commercial hub as well as where most government offices are located. With these flights we will improve the efficiency of both businesses and government activities,” she said.

Precision Air connects Tanzania with nine local destinations. They are Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Bukoba, Kigoma, Tabora, Mtwara and Zanzibar. It also connects Tanzania to the world through Nairobi.