East African airline announces new routes

Air Tanzania plans to launch direct flights to the UAE four times a week

Air Tanzania has confirmed plans to commence direct flights to Dubai from its hub in Dar es Salaam on Sunday, a local news agency reported on Wednesday. 

The airline will operate four flights a week on the route – on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. 

Mr Ladislaus Matindi, the managing director of the company, announced that the new route will begin on March 31, and a round-trip ticket will cost around $530.

“The Dubai flights are commencing soon,” Mr Matindi said.

He said several other new routes would be added later this year, including destinations such as Kinshasa, Goma, Muscat, and London.

For flights to the US, Air Tanzania intends to utilize commercial agreements like interlining and code-sharing with other airlines, rather than operating direct flights, the managing director of the company added. 

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“Our plan is still on and we continue working on it,” he said.

A flight from Tanzania to Dubai, whether it departs from Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar, typically takes a minimum of five hours.

Air Tanzania launched its first route from Dar es Salaam to Dubai in October 2023. These flights involve connections to Nairobi, Kenya, or Entebbe in Uganda, before proceeding to Dubai.

The airline’s domestic network encompasses 14 Tanzanian cities. It also operates regional and international routes to destinations such as Bujumbura in Burundi, Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Entebbe in Uganda, Ndola in Zambia, Comoros, Harare in Zimbabwe, Guangzhou in China, Nairobi in Kenya, and Mumbai in India.

Meanwhile, Air Tanzania expanded its fleet with the delivery of a second Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft on Tuesday, bringing its total fleet to 15 aircraft, including two Boeing B737-9 Max models obtained last October.