DAR ES SALAAM: VICE-PRESIDENT, Dr Philip Mpango has directed Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) to improve customer care services to reap the benefit of increasing number of passengers, accelerated by the government's efforts to transform the national flag carrier.
Dr Mpango said in the 2022/2023 fiscal year, through its increased number of flights, ATCL carried a total of 1,070,734 million passengers in comparison to about only 106,138 carried in the 2016/2017 fiscal year, saying such an increase demands quality services to attract more passengers and cargo.
He made the statement on Tuesday during a ceremony to welcome into the country the new passenger plane, Boeing 737-MAX 9, which was held at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) terminal I.
The reception was hosted alongside inauguration of two planes, including a Cessna 172-S for the National Institute of Transport's (NIT) practical training, especially pilot course.
Dr Mpango tasked ATCL to improve service delivery, including addressing the challenge of frequent flight delays. He said immediate mitigation was vital for the revived ATCL to quickly break even, while also withstanding competition from regional and international carriers.
He added that customer care should also go in line with the presence of delicious cuisines and soothing entertainment that will bring stunning experience to passengers. The VP also directed the company to use locally produced food approved by the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) in order to boost the country's local industries and agribusiness.
Also, he said there is concern in regard to the cargo plane Boeing 767-300F's high freight charges due to existing tax tariffs, directing ATCL to review the tax charges within a time frame of 14 days, so as to set favourable cargo charges for customers.
Dr Mpango directed the Minister for Transport, Professor Makame Mbarawa to work on the ATCL request of procuring another cargo plane, presented by the company Managing Director, Engineer Ladislaus Matindi earlier on Tuesday.
He said the government under President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan is committed on having a stable airline and air transport sector that will ignite the entire economy, including spurring tourism, trade, health and agriculture.
To attain a stable airline, he said the government has been putting in place required infrastructures, including addition of aircraft, expansion of airports and installation of a modern radar system as well as making the country's space safer for development of air transport.
On the other hand, he said the government eyes on increasing the number of air transport experts by providing NIT with all necessary facilities to train as many pilots as possible as well as engineers.
Dr Mpango urged NIT's leaders to utilise well the inaugurated plane so that it can be useful to many students in the country who dream of becoming pilots.
Earlier, Director of ATCL, Eng Matindi noted that in the 2022/2023 financial year, the company's local market share reached 53 per cent in comparison to 24 per cent registered in the 2016/2017 fiscal year. He attributed the notable growth of the market share to the government efforts to procure more aircrafts.
Eng Matindi said with addition of the new plane, so far ATCL has a total of 14 aircrafts to further serve local and international markets, noting that the company improves every day to catch up with demands of world class service delivery.
He said the cargo plane that started its operation about two months ago has so far carried a total of 337 tonnes of cargo, with a projection of 4,800 tonnes of cargo by June 2024. He encouraged Tanzanians to effectively use the aircraft.
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Highlighting the details of the Boeing 737-MAX9, he said the new plane has a capacity of carrying 181 passengers, with 165 for economy class and 16 for business class. He added that the plane's cargo capacity is 6 tonnes of freight.
Eng Matindi said the new plane has a capacity of flying for eight hours nonstop.
For his part, NIT's Rector Professor Zacharia Mganilwa thanked the government for providing two planes that for the first time since independence will enable the institute to provide pilot courses which were not provided due to absence of planes.
He said absence of a training plane made the country airlines to have a scarcity of pilots, because only a few who could afford fees studied the course abroad at a high cost of about 100,000 US dollars per student compared to 48000 US dollars which will be charged by the Institution.
