A special team of investigators has been formed to investigate the cause of the fire that gutted down a luggage storage facility at Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) Terminal II causing chaos and loss of property.
The fire occurred on Thursday at around 11:00 pm. However, the airport fire brigade managed to extinguish the fire. The authorities were forced to instruct passengers to use Terminal I until Friday noon when the situation turned to normal.
Minister for Works, Transport and Communication, Prof Makame Mbarawa, told reporters yesterday that the team comprises 12 members from Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) and that it will be led by Mr Joseph Nyahende.
He said the team has been assigned the job and that it is required to submit its findings to his office after a month. “I expect to get a good report from the team after 30 days. These results will help us to stop such kinds of incidents at other airports across the country,” said Prof Mbarawa.
The minister said for the time being, it was difficult to establish the damage and loss caused by the fire, but all property in the storage room were burnt to ashes.
“At the moment we cannot establish the value of the property as nobody knows what was in there except for the owners,” he said. Currently, the airport has one terminal building for passengers, whose three lounges, departure, arrival and VIP serve 200 passengers at a time and 500,000 a year.
Meanwhile, the minister has given an ultimatum of two months to Swissport, the country’s leading aviation services provider to remodel its operations or else its licence will be revoked. “According to recent report, Swissport has been recording poor performance.
The company is operating below standards,” said Prof Mbarawa. However, Prof Mbarawa said Swissport’s poor performance is not related in any way to the airport fire incident. Prof Mbarawa further said the company has been operating at JNIA for a very long time thus it was hard to measure its improvements as it was the only company providing such services.
Expounding further, he said in December, last year, a new company identified as Nas Airco Company Limited was licensed to provide similar services at JNIA but until now it has not commenced operations.
He said the report has it that Swissport was obstructing the new company from operating with no particular reasons. Prof Mbarawa ordered the authority to conduct proper investigation to establish the reasons behind the new company’s operational failure. “I must make this clear that if the investigation establishes that Swissport has a hand or it has been deliberately obstructing the new
company from operating, then heavy punishment will be provided to Swissport,” he said. The minister said the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCCA) Act stipulates that if an operator is found guilty of such an offence, the company will be required to pay 5,000 US dollars.
However, the minister described the amount as too small for a big company like Swissport. “If the punishment is stipulated in regulations it will be easier for me to make changes but if not, then it will require me to table the amendments in Parliament,” he said. Swissport Tanzania Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mrisho Yassin, said he was not in a position to respond on the matter.
“I am hearing these allegations for the first time. The minister did not contact me before on the matter, therefore, I cannot respond,” he said.
Swissport provides services to various airline companies such as ATCL, Egypt Air, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, EWA Air, Fly Dubai, Kenya Airways and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Others are LAM-Linhas Aereas de Mozambique, Malawian Airlines, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Rwandair Express, South African Airways (SAA), Swiss International Air Lines and Turkish Airlines.
Daily News
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