Tanzanian Travellers Scared of Covid-19 Quarantine in Kenya

Dar es Salaam — Kenya's decision to allow the Tanzania-based Precision Air (PW) to resume its Dar es Salaam-Nairobi flights is riddled with a lack of demand as travellers remain afraid of being

quarantined upon entering Kenya.

PW - which is listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) - is due to begin its Dar es Salaam-Nairobi flights on Thursday, September 3, 2020.

But, up until yesterday, the company said passengers' response has been very low due to Kenya's quarantine requirement for travellers from Tanzania.

"It is true that we were to resume our flights on Thursday; but demand is extremely low due to Kenya's quarantine requirement for passengers travelling from Tanzania," the PW's corporate affairs manager, Mr Hillary Mremi, told The Citizen yesterday.

PW chief executive officer Patrick Mwanri told The Citizen last week that Kenya's 14-day quarantine requirement on air travellers from Tanzania and other countries would interrupt the airline's plan for the Dar es Salaam-Nairobi route.

"The quarantine requirement discourages travellers from flying to Nairobi. No passenger seems ready to waste time and resources through a 14-day quarantine period," noted Mr Mwanri.

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Kenya said at the weekend that it would not cancel the traffic rights for PW's flights resumption on the Dar es Salaam-Nairobi route despite a standoff that has seen to Tanzania stopping three Kenyan airlines from flying to destinations in Tanzania.

Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) director-general Gilbert Kibe said PW had existing traffic rights that would not be nullified simply on account of the stalemate between Kenya and Tanzania.

"Precision Air has existing traffic rights and, to the best of my knowledge, (the rights) will not be cancelled," said Mr Kibe in an interview with the Kenya's Business Daily.

Kenya Airways (KQ) has as 41.2 percent stake in PW.

Tanzania and Kenya are currently on a standoff, precipitated by their differences in the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It all started earlier last month (August) when the Kenya government included Tanzania in a list of countries whose passengers would be allowed to enter Kenya without being quarantined upon entering Kenya.

Tanzania reciprocated by banning Kenya Airways' flights from landing at its international airports in Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.

Later, Kenya for the second time retained Tanzania on the red list of nations with high risk in coronavirus cases. Tanzanian authorities have always maintained that the country is free from Covid-19.

A second exclusion by Kenya angered Tanzania which banned three more Kenyan airlines of AirKenya Express, Fly540 and Safarilink Aviation from its (Tanzania's) market.