Air Tanzania starts direct flights from Dar es Salaam to Entebbe and Bujumbura later next month, bringing competition to the doorstep of Kenya Airways and RwandaAir — and convenience and savings to the regional traveller.
The Kenyan and Rwandan national carriers have over the years dominated these routes via their respective hubs in Nairobi and Kigali.
The Tanzania national carrier, which is barely into its second year of operation, revealed that it will start a four-times-a week direct flight to Entebbe from Dar es Salaam and a three times a week flight to Bujumbura, on two routes which other airlines had tried to feed connecting traffic to their hubs.
The direct flights offer relief to regional travellers who have had to endure the complex and unattractive connecting options on these two routes, which are routinely time-consuming and costly.
For one to fly between Tanzania and Uganda, a connection must be made through Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport or Rwanda’s Kigali International Airport.
Air Tanzania will charge $363 for a return ticket to Entebbe, flying on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Its Bujumbura clients will pay $358 for a return ticket with flights scheduled for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. This is less than the average of $390 that travellers pay to get to Bujumbura and Dar es Salaam via either Nairobi, Kigali or Addis, with an additional three to six hours connecting time.
Service and brand
Direct flights to Uganda and Burundi will eat into the earnings of Kenya Airways, which has enjoyed a near monopoly of the Dar-Nairobi-Entebbe route, its most profitable in the region.
KQ’s 15 years of dominance at the Entebbe hub could end, especially if Uganda revives its national carrier by November.
Kenya’s Transport Principal Secretary Paul Maringa however said the plans by Uganda and Tanzania would not affect KQ, given that part of the efforts to revamp the airline are aimed at making it competitive in the region.
“The increased competition will not affect the operations of Kenya Airways. We will bank on the service and brand to get an edge over the competition. Kenya Airways remains dominant on most of the routes and the expected flight to the US will give it an edge within the region,” Prof Maringa said.
KQ has at least four daily flights to Dar es Salaam, five to Entebbe, four to Lusaka and at least one more other daily flight to Livingstone (both in Zambia), routes that Air Tanzania will be seeking to claw back in the short term as it charts its recovery.
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