Tanzania: Precision Air Now Ventures Into Cargo Business to Keep Flying

By By Alex Malanga

Dar es Salaam — Precision Air is expecting to launch its first cargo-only flight next week as one amongst many innovative business strategies to navigate around the economic hurdles brought by the

Covid-19.

The airline is currently targeting Comoros Islands and Nairobi destinations, with a plan of flying general cargo, except dangerous goods, an official said.

Precision Air would deploy one of its ATR 72 - 500, with a capacity of an average of 5.5 tonnes for a one hour flight, according to its chief executive officer Mr Patrick Mwanri.

Last week, Precision Air secured the approval from the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) to use passenger cabin for cargo.

This suggests that they can now either remove the seats completely or use while they are there, provided that instructions by the aircraft's manufacturer are adhered to.

The airline's boss said using passenger cabin for cargo is a way to serve the rising demand of goods transportation especially now that most countries are on shutdown.

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Before the Covid-19 pandemic, most countries were being served by big airlines that used to bring in passengers alongside with cargo.

However, restrictions on international passenger commercial flights, have created cargo space shortage.

"Cargo has now become the available options for airlines to continue operations as we wait for the market to open up to its normal situation," Mr Mwanri told The Citizen via an email.

Currently, revenue from passengers, he added, has severely been hit especially after suspension of international commercial passenger flights in different regional destinations.

Mr Mwanri said Precision Air had until late last month recorded a drop of over 81 percent of passenger number compared to the same period last year.

The public listed company continues its operations in the domestic market with reduced capacity caused by reduced demand of passengers.

Mr Mwanri added that their daily operation has dwindled from an average of 53 before the pandemic to less than 10 sectors per day.

In response to the reduction in domestic operations, Precision Air, which has 400 staff, has been forced to cut salaries of its workers by up to more than 50 percent.

"Since our sales team is somehow idle, we engage them to concentrate much with cargo sales to ensure we serve our clients better during this time," said the Precision Air's top leader.

To cope with the crisis, the company has also undergone significant reduction on third party services such as ground handling, security and causal labors under engineering section.

"Based on the nature of services, some activities have been replaced by the Precision Air's own staff," said Mr Mwanri.

Other Measures taken in the response to the Covid-19 includes, suspension of onboard catering services to curb spread of the pandemic.

Also in the basket of measures is a review and adjustment of operating schedule to accommodate the current demand through rerouting, combination and cancellation of some routes.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, last month TCAA announced suspension of all scheduled and non-scheduled international commercial passenger flights until further notice.

However, a decision by the regulator came in when the agony is continuing as air transport has been shaken since February 2020 due to the pandemic.

Precision Air suspended its only Nairobi and Entebbe international flights in March and at the same, most of foreign airlines decided to suspend flights to Tanzania.