Etihad Airways lands in Tanzania

DAILY NEWS Reporter

ETIHAD Airways, the Abu Dhabi-registered airline, launched its daily flights to Tanzania on Tuesday, adding to the list a growing of Middle East carriers eyeing Tanzanian and African airspace.

The airline touched down at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday and received a ceremonial water cannon salute. It will be operating daily nonstop flights connecting the business city of Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates (UAE) with Dar es Salaam.

The daily flights will be operated with Airbus A320 aircraft and set to attract more passengers from Tanzania and its neighbouring states. Etihad Airways joins the list of a growing number of Middle East registered airlines lobbying East African skies.

Dar es Salaam will be Etihad Airways’ 110th destination globally and its 11th destination in Africa and the Indian Ocean, reports from the airline’s head office in Abu Dhabi said. The flights will be connecting the Tanzanian capital with 45 destinations across the Middle East, Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, North and Southern Asia and Australia through daily flights, the Etihad report said.

Taking advantage of the fast-growing air connection between East Africa and the Middle East, Tanzania is lobbying tourists and travel trade investments from the Gulf States and the rest of the Arab World.

A team of tourist business stakeholders and marketing officials from Tanzania visited Dubai and other Middle East states last year, looking for potential tourists and investors in tourism from the Gulf States and invited them to invest in Tanzania’s fast-growing tourist industry, taking advantage of the Middle East airlines new routes.

Tanzania Tourist Board had launched marketing campaigns to attract visitors from the Gulf States through these airlines. Hotel and accommodations, hunting and camping safaris are areas of tourist investment and the Tanzania Tourist Board is looking to market them in the Gulf States.

Although the number of Arab tourists to East Africa is not as big as the European and American holidaymakers, there has been a notable number of hunting tourists from the Middle East to Tanzania and the rest of East Africa. About 15,000 tourists from the Gulf visit East Africa every year.

Although small in numbers, East African nations are taking advantage of the Middle East-registered airlines to be a lifeline for Arab-speaking holidaymakers. Airlines registered in Middle Eastern states that are flying to Tanzania include Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways, Oman Air, Turkish Airlines and Fly Dubai, which are the most competitive over Tanzania’s airspace.

Middle East-registered airlines have taken over the Tanzanian airspace from the traditional European-based airlines which had pulled out their flights between key European cities and Dar es Salaam.

Among European carriers that pulled their flights out of Tanzania are SAS (Scandinavian), Sabena, Air France, Lufthansa, Aeroflot (Russia), Alitalia and British Airways.