Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) resumed flights between Dar es Salaam and the two major tourist destinations in the country, Arusha and Zanzibar.
Arusha, the “Safari Capital of East Africa” and the tropical beach island of Zanzibar, were not being plied by Air Tanzania in the recent past.
ATCL suspended its services to Zanzibar about four years back and the flights to Arusha were operated by jet aircraft into Kilimanjaro International Airport.
Air Tanzania was forced to withdraw from these destinations due to lack of suitable aircrafts.
At present, six trips per week are planned to ply between Arusha to Zanzibar and back to Dar es Salaam using a 50-seater Bombardier Dash-8.
In the inaugural flight of the national carrier, which commenced last week, the 50-seater Bombardier Dash-8, had the honor of flying the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr. Lazaro Nyalandu, from Dar es Salaam to Arusha.
The minister said that restoration of the national carrier to these two tourist destinations would boost the tourism sector.
As per Mr. Juma Boma, Acting Commercial Director at ATCL, the Arusha-Zanzibar-Dar es Salaam route, is part of the revived company’s future expansion plan, to reach more and more destinations.
Air Tanzania earlier announced it intends to increase its fleet size to a total of 11 aircraft within the next five years.
