Air Tanzania sign deal with Boeing

ATCL managing director and CEO Ladislaus Matindi (middle) in a meeting with the Boeing directors

By Alex Nelson Malanga

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Dar es Salaam. Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) and Boeing--- an American multinational corporation, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for

the later to train the airline officials.

ATCL chief executive officer, Mr Ladislaus Matindi, said during the signing ceremony that the training to start soon, will target senior managers, middle managers and supervisors.

“We are privileged to have a proposal from Boeing on the capacity building. This is very welcoming and it is in time for the programme to revamp Air Tanzania,” said Mr Matindi.

Initiatives to revamp ATCL started way back in 2015 when the late President John Magufuli took the reign and to date the government has purchased nine aircraft including two Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners. Four more planes are expected to arrive next year.

“With revamping of our airline, we started by bringing in new energetic and very promising young managers, but one of the issues that we have been struggling with is to build their capacity,” he said adding that they wanted to sharpen the managers’ focus on purely aviation marketing.

Boeing sales director for Middle East and Africa Moore Ibekwe said their move to offer training to ATCL’s staff was a reward for the airline’s trust in Boeing.

“Leadership goes a long way. As ATCL gets its new aircraft early next year, you do need leaders for a sustainable future,” said Mr Ibekwe.

“ATCL is an airline that is in the process of becoming much bigger and as our thanks to your trust, we want to help you get there. I need to see the airline becomes more successful than it is today. I need to see ATCL flies all over the world,” he said.

Boeing marketing director for Middle East and Africa Hamza Bunnya said under the MoU which will last a couple of years, some of the training will be held in the UK and some in Tanzania.

“When we look at ATCL, we look at an airline that we know will grow,” said Mr Bunnya, adding that for the airline to succeed, it needed the right leaders with the right skills.

“At the end of the day the success of ATCL will be driven through hard work, through this partnership as well as by ensuring that we know where the future is and fight for our place,” said Mr Bunnya.