Tanzania's Precision Air (PW), in addition to announcing its partnership with Vodacom Tanzania in launching M-Pesa - an innovative method of paying for one's air tickets using cellphone airtime - and having received a shot in the arm last week when 41% shareholder Kenya Airways (KQ) announced it would inject "between USD4 - 6million" into the carrier from its own USD80million loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to help aid the Tanzanian regional carrier's fleet expansion plans, today announced plans to resurrect its service to Harare, Zimbabwe albeit via Blantyre, Malawi, and not Lilongwe, Malawi, as originally intended. |
| A Precision Air ATR72 |
A 3x weekly Dar es Salaam - Lilongwe - Harare - Dar es Salaam service was originally slated to go into service in July, was then pushed back into August, before quietly being shelved until now. This development comes as the carrier last week moved to drop its Tanzania - Johannesburg, South Africa flights effective 17 September 2012, in order to focus more on its local and regional routes closer to home.
Precision Air's Commercial Director, Mr Patrick Ndekana, said:
Source [Daily News Tanzania]“We are planning to start serving the route, which has no direct connection with Dar es Salaam, before the end of this year,” Mr Ndekana said. He said one of three Boeing planes will serve the route, which has the potential given the fact that there are increasing business activities between Dar and Harare. “This will be our seventh and eighth route in the region.”
The airline is due to receive five brand-new European turboprop aircraft between October 2012 and 2014: four ATR42-600 aircraft, as well as a larger ATR72-600.
