Air Tanzania has a fascinating history to share. Air Tanzania first began operations in 1977. It used to operate as Air Tanzania Corporation. It had many ups and downs, mostly downs. Air Tanzania was partially privatised in 2002 with South African Airways picking up a 49% stake. But the venture wasn’t successful due to differences between both parties.
Air Tanzania nationalised again in 2006. The company shut down operations many times due to lack of aircraft, only to start again. The airline started gaining traction when John Magfulli became the President of Tanzania. Under him, there is some action plan.
Reasons to fly Air Tanzania according to them
Air Tanzania has a small fleet of just five aircraft. It has 1 Bombardier Q300, 3 Bombardier Q400 and 1 Boeing 787-8. It has 2 Airbus A220-300 and 1 Boeing 787-8 on order. The A220s are scheduled to be delivered in November this year. The second Boeing 787-8 will arrive in January 2020.
With this small fleet, Air Tanzania flies to 13 destinations. Out of these, 10 are domestic destinations, and three are international. Air Tanzania has been longing to restart Dar-e-Salaam to Mumbai nonstop flights. Back in the day, both Air Tanzania and Air India used to operate nonstop flights from Mumbai to Dar-e-Salam.
Air Tanzania to Mumbai then?
There were talks about Air Tanzania relaunching flights to Mumbai since they took delivery of their Boeing 787-8. A recent announcement by Air Tanzania on their Facebook page caught my eye.
Air Tanzania prepped up for Mumbai launch
Air Tanzania will operate 3x weekly flights using a Boeing 787-8. The Boeing 787-8 has 22 Business class seats and 240 Economy seats.
Air Tanzania will have a night departure out of Dar-e-Salaam, arriving early in the morning in Mumbai the next day. The flight will have a morning departure out of Mumbai, coming in Dar-e-Salaam the same day. This will help passengers to connect to and from Zanzibar, Mt. Kilimanjaro and other airports also. This might be similar to Kenya Airways KQ204/205 on the Mumbai-Nairobi route.
As it is displayed on the announcement poster, introductory fares start at INR 21000 one-way and INR 33300 roundtrip for Economy. That’s very cheap. The non-stop route will take ~7:15 hours. Catch is, the flight isn’t bookable yet.
Mumbai to Dar-e-Salaam.
The non-stop flight will be a boon for many Indian and Africans living in India and Tanzania. It will be a hit with wildlife enthusiasts like me. Tanzania has some national parks, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area being my favourite.
Source: OAG
If you look at the list, there are 4 Indian cities: Mumbai, New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. Mumbai leads the pack and is second to London. Well, one would naturally think why aren’t they adding flights to London? British Airways pulled out of the market in 2013 after serving it for more than four decades due to economic reasons. Maybe Air Tanzania will launch the route with the second Boeing 787-8.
Bottomline
Mumbai to Tanzania is an unserved market. Good to see Air Tanzania announce non-stop flights to Mumbai. Air Tanzania does face some competition by three African and a lot of Middle-East carriers who offer some great deals on one-stop flights. With competitive fares and connection opportunities, they are bound to succeed. Let’s see which Indian airline code-shares with Air Tanzania on this route.
Are you excited for Mumbai to Dar-e-Salaam non-stop flights?
i am trying to book for my mother from mumbai to dar es salaam return air ticket during Air Tanzania Opening. she is normally visits Tanzania twice a year. we didnt find a schedule of flight on which dates operating, whats fare etc. how to go online booking please revert
Till when it’s going to start. Since long time am hearing about direct flight.
Very nice, but if fares are so low, this service may not be viable. But Air Tanzania must be a state-run airline.
I should add, I just read in the BOM-JFK post that AI had announced NBO on Twitter once upon a time. With recently added capacity from Rwandair and now Air Tanzania, all offering quite low fares to East and Southern Africa, Air India should be cautious.