Air Tanzania has a small fleet of just seven aircraft. It has 1 Bombardier Q300, 3 Bombardier Q400, 2 Airbus A220-300 and 1 Boeing 787-8. The airline took delivery of their first 787-8 in July 2018. It has another Boeing 787-8 on order which will arrive in January 2020.

Air Tanzania had plans to relaunch their 3x weekly flights to Mumbai from October 2018 with the 787-8. But it kept on postponing the launch date. It was rumoured that flights would start in March 2019, but that did not happen either. The 787-8 was deployed on short-haul flights instead.

Air Tanzania became a member of IATA and started negotiations with Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport for GDS. These were the steps, which according to them, delayed the launch of the non-stop flight to Mumbai.

Finally, Air Tanzania has opened bookings for 3x weekly Mumbai to Dar-es-Salaam flights from July 17, 2019, onwards. The flight schedule is

TC400 DAR1800 – 0250 (+1 day)BOM 788 357
TC401 BOM0410 – 0800DAR 788 146

Fares start at INR 30,000 (USD 440) for roundtrip economy and INR 1,25,000 (USD 1870) for roundtrip business class.

The website has some glitches. I get it the flight was just loaded into the schedule. I can book a roundtrip from Dar-es-Salaam to Mumbai but the other way round cannot be booked for now.

Also, there aren’t any options to connect from Mumbai to other destinations in Air Tanzania’s network like Kilimanjaro or Johannesburg and so-on. These glitches might soon be resolved.

The flight can be booked via an OTA like MakeMyTrip. But you will notice, a booking is made under Hahn Air. If you remembered back in 2016, SpiceJet tied up with Hahn Air to sell tickets on a GDS under Hahn Air. This was when SpiceJet didn’t have a tie-up with a GDS. Hahn Air charges a premium for tickets on other carriers.

The flight won’t be operated by a Q400 Dash 8 as indicated above. Air Tanzania’s 787 “Dash 8” does have a WiFi radome fitted on top and they do advertise the same on their website. Don’t know if they have activated the services yet or not. They are a full-service carrier, contrary to what is advertised by Hahn Air. I am curious about what the onboard service will be like.

Air Tanzania’s 787 has 262 seats in a 2 class configuration: 22 lie-flat business class seats and 240 economy class seats. The economy class seats are in a standard 3-3-3 configuration with a 32-inch seat pitch while the business class is in a 2-2-2 configuration.

Air Tanzania has opted to install Stelia Equinox 3D seats. These aren’t the multi-foot level “stacked” Equinox 3D seats that you will find on Royal Air Maroc 787s. These are the same seats you will find on Biman Bangladesh’s 787-8 as well.

What is interesting to note is that Biman Bangladesh 787-8 has a total of 24 seats spread across four rows in 2-2-2 configuration. While Air Tanzania is advertising only 22 business class seats, so perhaps the rest of the two seats would be used as crew rest. Since the seats recline downward — once fully flat, you’re almost flush with the floor.

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 of the best national parks in the world, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is my favourite. I mean where else can you see lions resting on trees?

Are you excited for Mumbai to Tanzania non-stop flights?