KLM adamant over Tanzania civil unrest claim, apologises to Kenya

 

By Paul Owere

Web Editor

Mwananchi Communications Ltd

Summary

·         The ministry said operations at the Julius Nyerere International Airport and Kilimanjaro International Airport continued without any interruptions, the entire weekend.

Dar es Salaam. Dutch Airliner- KLM has maintained its stand over the civil unrest in Tanzania , but has apoligised to Kenya regarding  a statement they issued on Friday, January 27 that said that there was a potential civil unrest in the two countries

The position comes at a time when Tanzanian authorities have urged the public to ignore the statement calling it baseless.

 “This statement is baseless, alarmist, unfounded, inconsiderate and insensitive and has caused unnecessary fear and panic to the general public and aviation industry at large,” said Prof Makame Mbarawa the minister of works and transport.

In a statement released on late Saturday, January 28, the airline said the alert, which was only meant for our customers in Tanzania, was inadvertently and erroneously also shared with our customers in Kenya. We made a mistake in our rebook policy and initially included Kenya.

“This is incorrect and we would like to apologize for this,” reads the statement.

It adds: KLM takes this opportunity to sincerely apologize to its customers, partners and to the Government and people of Kenya for the inconvenience and damage the said erroneous alert may have caused. The correct position is that at KLM flights in and out of Nairobi remain as per schedule and no interruptions are anticipated.

The statement further said Air France-KLM group has communicated the correct position to the relevant government authorities through its Nairobi office but did not make similar efforts in Tanzania where they maintained their stand.

According to the Ministry of Works and Transport, on the claimed date, there was no recorded civil unrest within the territory of the United Republic of Tanzania which impair the Aviation operations within the country.

The ministry said operations at the Julius Nyerere International Airport and Kilimanjaro International Airport continued without any interruptions, the entire weekend.

 On January 27, at JNIA 17 out of 18 International Scheduled Flights with 2545 passengers were facilitated while at KIA 5 international flights with 823 passengers were facilitated. Until 3:15 PM on Saturday, 12 International Scheduled Flights landed at JNIA and were were facilitated.