Tanzania bans Kenya Airways flights in tit-for-tat move

Tanzania’s aviation authority has said that it will not permit any Kenya Airways flights from Nairobi to land in Dar es Salaam from next Monday.

There are usually three scheduled services on this leg of the route every day.

The decision to prevent the flights comes in retaliation to a move by Kenya to not allow any all-cargo flights operated by Air Tanzania to land in Nairobi, a statement from the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) said.

It added that Kenya’s move went against a 2016 agreement between the two countries.

Hamza Johari, director general of the TCCA, told BBC: “We have written to Kenyan authorities’ but they do not respond. We tried other means of arbitration without success.

“We had no barriers for their flight to Tanzania, why are they not giving us access to operate in their country? We have calculated over $330,000 (£260,000) loss for every single cargo flight from Nairobi to other countries.”

While other airlines ply the Nairobi-Dar es Salaam route, this tit-for-tat action could make things more expensive and disrupt the travel plans for thousands of tourists and businesspeople who have come to rely on Kenya Airways, Tanzania’s Citizen newspaper reports.

In response to TCAA’s statement, Kenya Airways said it is “engaging the Civil Aviation Authorities and relevant government agencies in Kenya and Tanzania to find a solution that will ensure there are no flight disruptions between Nairobi and Dar es Salaam”.

This is not the first time the two countries have fallen out over aviation.

In 2020, Tanzania stopped Kenya Airways flights for a brief period in a row over quarantine restrictions for Tanzanians.

Source:norvanreports