Air Tanzania apologises for flight cancellations

   

 By Rosemary Mirondo

More by this Author

Dar es Salaam. Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) has attributed the majority of recent flight cancelation and postponement of trips as a result of continuous

aircraft mechanical service program which has caused a shortage to its fleet.
Speaking to journalists in Dar es Salaam on Thursday,  Head of communication at ATCL Josephat Kagirwa said there has been a programme over the past two weeks to service the flights which are in line with the requirements from the manufacturers.
Kagirwa who was speaking on behalf of ATCL’s acting Managing Director Albinus Manumbu said the company has decided to apologize and inform the public over the matter following concerns from customers over cancelations and postponement of flights.

“Whenever there are changes in our flights, the company informs passengers some hours before but, it is unfortunate that there are some passengers who bought tickets from agents and do not get this information on time,” he said.
In recent weeks there have been concerns on social media from various people over a tendency by ATCL to cancel or postpone flights without any information.

Kagirwa used the opportunity to inform customers who buy tickets from agents to make sure they write their phone numbers so that it becomes easy to inform them whenever there are changes.

In 2016, Tanzania developed a programme to revitalize its national carrier which included purchasing six new aircraft between 2016 and 2018, payment of debts and provision of start-up capital, improvement and modernization of business.
The aircraft is part of Air Tanzania’s plan to grow its operations across Africa as well as to international destinations.
Air Tanzania was established as Air Tanzania Corporation (ATC) in September 1977 after the collapse of the regional East African Airways. Since then, the airline had been operating at a loss and depending on government subsidies.