► TANZANIA: Tropical Air starts 3x weekly Zanzibar - Mbeya via Dar es Salaam flights.

Zanzibari carrier, Tropical Air, on July 19 officially launched a 3x weekly service from Zanzibar to Mbeya via Dar es Salaam using an ATR42-300. Flights in reality operate to Songwe International Airport which serves the town of Mbeya.

► MALAWI: Air Malawi Ltd's lone ATR42, two 737s put up for sale by liquidator.

Mr Lekani Katandula, a partner at audit and business advisory firm Deloitte, the officially appointed liquidators for the now defunct Air Malawi Ltd (QM), has announced that the airline's fleet of three aircraft, an ATR42, a B737-300 and a B737-500, are now up for sale to all interested parties.

► ZAMBIA: Mukuba Airlines, Zambia's first LCC, set to start ops in coming months with ATR42s, 72s.

Mukuba Airlines, dubbed Zambia's first Budget airline/LCC, is set to start operations in the next few months, in time for the XXth United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly to be jointly held in Livingstone & Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in August this year.

► TANZANIA: (Pics) Precision Air takes delivery of its second new ATR 42-600.

Tanzania's Precision Air on Sunday 23 December 2012, took delivery of its second ATR42-600 (MSN 1003 | 5H-PWI) following a delivery flight routed Toulouse -  Brindisi - Luxor - Dar es Salaam. The welcoming ceremony was held at Dar es Salaam's Julius Nyerere International Airport.

► TANZANIA: Precision Air takes delivery of its first new ATR 42-600.

Tanzanian carrier Precision Air (PW), today, took delivery of its first ATR42-600 out of five brand new -600 series ATR aircraft (i.e. 4 ATR 42-600s and 1 ATR 72-600) ordered in December 2011. The official ceremony took place earlier today at the ATR Delivery Center in Toulouse, France, and was attended by Alfonse Kioko, CEO of Precision Air and Filippo Bagnato, ATR's CEO.

■ TANZANIA: Precision Air extends Sabena Technics contract; readies itself for arrival of four additional ATR42s.

Just a week after sealing a 5 year deal with FastJet to provide general service and maintenance to its Airbus A319 fleet set to be based out of Dar es Salaam, Belgium's Sabena Technics, today, extended an existing contract with yet another Tanzanian carrier, Precision Air (PW), to now provide component support for its new fleet of ATR 42-600s and ATR72-600s.

► MALAWI: Air Malawi struggles to get back on feet; rebuild confidence.

Having been forced to temporarily cease operations last year due to lack of aircraft, Air Malawi (QM) has been finding the going hard since re-entering the market for both regional and domestic flights.

Upon resuming flights on 29 March 2012 to Johannesburg using a leased Boeing 737-200, the airline encountered severe customer backlash as it was forced to fly a solitary passenger to Lusaka shortly after - a phenomenon not unknown to southern African airlines these days.

However, in an attempt to woe back passenger numbers on the domestic Lilongwe-Blantyre front, Air Malawi says it has carefully designed schedules for its daily flights between Blantyre and Lilongwe to serve the needs of business travellers between the two cities, using its Boeing 737 and ATR-42.

"Air Malawi's Tariffs and Industry Affairs Manager Tony Chimpukuso said the flights have  already proved useful and convenient for local travellers as it leaves early in the morning in Blantyre and returns late in the evening to enable customers do all their business assignments during the day.

The flights also operate during weekends, according to Chimpukuso."

Read More Here [The Daily Times Malawi]

The updates come as Malawi is scheduled to hold a summit of the African Union in July.