Effective yesterday, Fastjet has increased the number of
flights between Dar es Salaam and Entebbe.
Flights have increased from the initial two to now four per
week to meet steadily rising demand for nonstop travel between Uganda and
Tanzania. Until the launch of Fastjet services, Ugandans had to travel via
Nairobi or Kigali to reach Dar es Salaam, after the Uganda Civil Aviation
Authority, trying to evade ICAO citation for significant safety concerns of its
operations, decapitated the country’s aviation industry, leaving a glaring gap
in flight connections to the detriment of the entire region.
The doubling of flights to Entebbe comes on the back of
Fastjet releasing unaudited half-year results, which in comparison with a year
ago show some significant improvements.
Fleet utilization has since last year risen from 5.5 hours
per day to 7.9 hours per day by the end of June, but more importantly, since
the addition of flights to Harare and the increase in flights to Zambia, by the
end of August reached 9.9 flight hours per day. The new route to Entebbe since
September is bound to drive this figure into the double-digit hour range for
the three Airbus A319 presently on the fleet.
Revenues of the Tanzania operation, presently the only
active part of the Fastjet network, nearly doubled during the period under
review to US$19 million while passenger numbers rose from the half year ended
in June 2013 to June 2014 rose by 41.5 percent, with notably revenues per
passenger now standing at over US$81.
Important for passengers is the 90 percent punctuality,
meaning arrivals and departures are staying within 15 minutes of the published
times, giving them a reliability few airlines in the region have accomplished
so far.
A statement received from Fastjet, commenting on the half-year
results, shed further light on these figures and data: “We are delighted to
have seen a steady increase in the number of passengers travelling on core
Tanzanian routes, with revenue growth of 96% against the same period last year.
Strong underlying traffic growth in the first half of 2014 continues to
demonstrate that Fastjet’s low-cost airline model works in the African market.
This growth in traffic underpins our belief that people across Africa are
increasingly embracing the travel opportunities offered by Fastjet’s safe,
reliable, and great value product, with a high percentage of first-time flyers.
“Additional services from our Tanzanian base in Dar es
Salaam to Lusaka, Harare and Entebbe, linking these land-locked countries to
the port of Dar es Salaam, have proven successful and are performing well. Although these routes are in their infancy,
there is every indication that these will develop into valuable routes for the
Fastjet Tanzania pan-African network.
Prior to these routes being launched there were no direct air services
linking Dar es Salaam with either Harare or Entebbe.
“During the period, we added additional revenue streams to
the business mix including car rentals, hotels and car parking and early
indications suggest that these services are proving popular with our customers.
Fastjet continues on its path of expansion, leveraging our first mover
advantage to the benefit of our customers and shareholders.”
All eyes are now on the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority to learn
when Fastjet will not only be granted an Air Service License, a prerequisite to
start the process towards attaining an Air Operator Certificate which permits
the start of operations, but also about the long overdue decision to let
Fastjet Tanzania fly into Nairobi. The long overdue approval for those flights
have raised the spectrum that should Kenya not allow these flights, the
Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority may resort to retaliatory measures over the
perceived violation of reciprocity requirements under the existing BASA, short
for Bilateral Air Services Agreement.
No comments:
Post a Comment