Qatar Airways sees Tanzania as vital destination

DAILY NEWS Reporter

KILIMANJARO and Zanzibar, Qatar Airways’ second and third gateway in Tanzania after Dar es Salaam, have proved vital revenue generation routes for the airline, country manager, Basel Haydar has said.

He said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the two routes which are used to fly in visitors to leading tourist attractions of Tanzania as well as business travellers to the East African region have contributed to make Tanzania, vital destination for thousands of their global passengers. “Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro contribute valuable revenue because of bringing in tourists.

They bring in very generous contribution,” he told senior reporters and editors of mainstream media in Dar es Salaam at an occasion to mark ten year of service in Tanzania.

Qatar Airways, state-owned flag carrier of the State of Qatar, started flying in Tanzania in 2007 with A320 services between the airline hub in Doha and Dar es Salaam. Tanzania operations were further expanded when the airline launched flights to Kilimanjaro in 2012 and Zanzibar in 2015.

He said they were pleased with the performance of the three routes in Tanzania enjoying great success of their operations in the country. “We began with one destination and expanded to three. Obviously they have been very successful as otherwise there wouldn’t be expansion.”

“We’re doing very fine and as for now we’re happy with our operations in Tanzania... we’re happy with what we have,” he said however declining to say if they were thinking of more expansion of their operations.

He said in the last ten years of operations, the airline was instrumental in bringing in more tourists to Tanzania connecting them to the tourist attractions in the northern circuit. Tourism is Tanzania’s important foreign exchange earner and support some half a million jobs directly, along with many more indirectly.

It contributed 1.95 billion US dollars in 2014, up from 1.88 US dollars billion in 2013, according to Bank of Tanzania data. A total of 1.14 million tourists visited the country in 2014, up from 1.095 million the previous year.