Unfortunately I don't have any insights here, but rather I'd just like to express my continued confusion. Air Tanzania has what I'd like to think is the most interesting aircraft delivery of 2018. This small airline previously only had turboprops, but this July they took delivery of a Boeing 787, with the registration code 5H-TCG.…
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Air Tanzania is still waiting for approval from the Indian government. As you can imagine, there’s a bit of bureaucracy in India...
It looks like the matter was discussed with The Parliamentary Public Investment Committee this week. Air Tazanias CEO, Ladislaus Matindi was quoted as saying that the airline has 10 highly qualified pilots for the Dreamliner which is ready to embark on the Mumbai route.
"We have qualified pilots who are currently flying our Dreamliner and they are doing well," said Mr Matindi, hinting that by December this year, the company will have a total of 44 pilots against its demand of over 50.
He went on to say; " The company has embarked on a special programme to recruit and train inexperienced pilots from the market...there are many trained young pilots in the domestic market ...they only lack experience in flying aircraft. So, we take them through the bridging courses to qualify as pilots for our aircraft," said Mr Matindi, adding that the airline has also worked on competitive packages to retain the skilled aviators"
Maybe they are waiting until they are sure they have enough pilots for the long haul?
The plane gets parked at the best gate in DAR every day (when it's not flying to Mwanza and back.) It's as much as trophy as it is an aircraft. Makes for a good avgeek photo op when boarding flights on other airlines!
Not to mention that the 787 basically gets a 30 minute turnaround on its domestic flight.
According to a press release from the High Commission of India flights are supposed to start in December:
"Tanzania invited greater Indian investment and business linkages in areas such as agro-products, manufacturing, mining, tourism and informed that Air Tanzania plans to start direct flights between Dar es Salaam and Mumbai in December 2018."
It's because the company is in debt. It has not made a single international flight because they are afraid of auctioneers.
They definitely used to have at least one 737. Flew with them about 20 years ago. They also served these really tasty meat skewers.
Have you heard of Air Peace? A Nigerian airline, they've taken delivery of some 777, I think they used to fly for Emirates, but are yet to announce the international routes
I always wondered everytime I landed in DAR why that 787 never moved from its place
I was told by a (QR) 787 captain that ATC have Trent engines which aren't ETOPS certified on the 787 (unlike RR) so it can't fly long distances over water. This could mean that they have to fly a more cicurtuous route to BOM mostly over or near land.