Air Tanzania to land in Burundi in Q1 2023
Air Tanzania wants to build a strong intra-African network. As a prelude to its expansion into West Africa, the company is working on establishing air links between Tanzania and all its neighbouring countries.
Air Tanzania continues its African expansion. The Tanzanian state-owned carrier plans to open a direct route to Burundi in early 2023.
According to the schedule, the Dar es Salaam - Bujumbura route will be launched from 2 January 2023. The route will operate three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Air Tanzania will be corridor free on this route where it will line up its Dash8-400 fleet.
Flight TC219 will depart Dar es Salaam at 14:50 and arrive in Bujumbura at 15:20. On the return leg, flight TC219 will leave the Burundian capital at 15:50 and land at its hub at 18:00 local time.
In the region, Air Tanzania already serves Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, DRC (Lubumbashi) and Uganda, in addition to a dozen domestic routes. Outside Africa, the airline also connects to China and India. For next year, the company is targeting services to Nigeria, Ghana and England. It also plans to strengthen its offer in the DRC with the opening of two new corridors to Kinshasa and Goma.
Its expansion ambitions are in line with the forthcoming densification of its fleet, which should see the arrival of two Boeing 737-900s and a 787-8 Dreamliner in 2023. Its fleet expansion plan also includes the acquisition of two Airbus A220-300s, a Dash 8-Q400 and a B767-300F (cargo). Currently, Tanzania's state-owned flag carrier has a fleet of eleven aircraft (four A220-300s, two B787-8 Dreamliners and five Dash 8-Q400s), with an average age of 3.7 years.
