 BRIEF HISTORY |
Air Tanzania is fully owned by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania under the Ministry of Communications and Transport since its inception in 1977.
| MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE |
Under the guidance of a Board of Directors, which consists of a Chairman and six other members representing a cross-section of business people, members of Parliament and self employed citizens, the management of ATC comprises of a Managing Director and four Department Heads (Operations, Technical, Commercial and Finance and Administration).
Security, Corporate Planning, legal Unit, Internal Audit and Public Relations are independent units, which report directly to the Managing Director.
| WORKERS PARTICIPATION |
The Management has given more importance to the employee's participation in the management of the Corporation through the Central Joint Industrial Council and the Wo5kers Council, which has provided constructive inputs on several important issues.
The management team also consists of two representatives from the trade union leadership, (COTWU). Management appreciates the cooperation and support of the employees under their union leadership and its significant contribution to the performance of the Corporation affairs.
| COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES |
 AUTOMATION |
Air Tanzania has successfully implemented the migration of the Travel Agents from GETS to GALILEO Computerized Reservation System (RCS). All Travel Agents were fully transferred to GALILEO system by December 1998.
It was unfortunate that the Automated- ticketing process for both the airline and Travel Agents could not be implemented due to various reasons. This will be accomplished during the next financial year 1999/2000.
GALILEO is a GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (GDS) for travel agencies and is available in almost all countries of the world. Information from more than 5000 airlines as well as 40,000 hotel properties and 45 car rental companies can accessed through Galileo CRS:
ATC automation plans now nearing completion after acquisition of the World Bank's funds include the automation of General Accounting and Revenue Accounting, each with a separate software package.
These two software packages are meant to improve efficiency and produce timely and accurate management information, an essential element for effective decision making.
A Local Area Network has been planned to link all the financial functions.
| MARKET DEVELOPMENT |
During the year 1998/1999 the airline concentrated in strengthening her market position especially to those destinations being served and improving ATC's product with much emphasis on schedule integrity.
During the period under review the corporation was able to add a third frequency to / from Entebbe. The code share between Air Tanzania and Air Zimbabwe was improved by adding another frequency, which is operated by Air Zimbabwe.
A Special Prorate Agreement with Commair of South Africa was also signed. This will improve ATC's accessibility into the South African market by reaching most major cities.
They are operating on domestic and regional network. All four aircraft are equipped with cargo door and have a re-inforced cargo floor.
In addition to the above, Air Tanzania has one B737-300 leased from Ansett World Wide Australia.
| AIRCRAFT HRS / CYCLES SINCE NEW |
| REGISTRATION |
TYPE |
AIRCRAFT HRS / CYCLES |
| 5H- TCA |
B737-300 |
23130/20108 |
| 5H-ATC |
B737-200 |
38383/36429 |
| 5H-MRK |
B737-200 |
38085/35793 |
| 5H-MPU |
F27-600 |
25061/27173 |
| 5H-MRM |
F27-600 |
21918/24680 |
Operation revenue 1998 / 1999
| SCHEDULED SERVICES |
Air Tanzania offers services to Regional and Domestic destinations, with a combination of B737s and turbo props.
The main domestic routes are:
DAR-MWANZA-DAR
DAR-KILIMANJARO-DAR
DAR-MTWARA-DAR
DAR-ZANZIBAR-DAR
DAR-TABORA-KIGOMA- TABORA-DAR
DAR-LINDI-DAR.
The regional points include:
ADEN
DUBAI
ENTEBBE
HARARE
JOHANESBURG
KIGALI,
LUSAKA
MOMBASA
MUSCAT COMMORO
MAURITIUS
BUJUMBURA
LUBUMBASHI AND NAIROBI.
|
Numbers of frequencies vary from once a week to four times a week depending on demand.
| CURRENT AND LONG-TERM PRIORITIES |
Air Tanzania's corporate plan is in the form of a two-year Rolling Plan, which began in the financial year 1999/2000.
This was introduced to give guidance and forecast. The two-year Rolling Plan was intended to make it easier to correct mistakes and bottlenecks in the previous year and enhances targets for the subsequent year.
That decision by Management was necessitated by the fact that the privatisation of Air Tanzania could not be predicted when it would be completed as it has survived in documents since 1992.
Furthermore, for the same reason, the preparation of a 5-year business plan has been deferred, as Management believed that it was untenable for the same reasons of the privatisation exercise.
Major challenges and obstacles Air Tanzania faces today that management would like to solve in the beginning of the new millennium.
The major challenge and obstacle that Air Tanzania faces today is the delay in privatising the airline.
Although Tanzania started to liberalize its domestic air transport in 1992, on the regional and international scene, it has been exercising liberalisation very gradually and on bilateral basis. The liberalisation has so far included multiple designations, unrestricted capacity and very liberal frequencies.
The open sky policy agreement recently initiated between Tanzania and the United States is even more liberal as it will eventually (after the two-year transition period) also include non-scheduled services Agreements (BASAs) that are in place with third countries will not be affected.
However, due to lack of a very strong National Carrier (Air Tanzania), there is fear that opening up our skies at present to regional carriers will weaken Air Tanzania (and others) even further and may end up with Tanzania being flooded with foreign carriers from our neighbours, a trend which is economically undesirable. Air Tanzania will not be able to survive (in its present unprivatised form) the stiff competition, which will come about when the open sky policy becomes fully operational.
Therefore the major challenge facing the company presently is to advise the Government to ensure that the liberalization of air transport goes hand with the speedy privatization of Air Tanzania.
Apart from the injection of capital, a privatized Air Tanzania will be able to implement its plans faster, cutting the existing red tapes and hence be able to plan and execute its decision without delay. In this way the company will be able to match the competition and hence be able to survive and grow.
This is the obstacle Air Tanzania would like to solve in the beginning of this millennium. It is encouraging though that the Government, in collaboration with other relevant bodies in the country is working on the issues of privatization of Air Tanzania, and the exercise is expected to be complete by March 2001.
Air Tanzania's Strategy in an increasingly competitive market.
As explained above, Tanzania started to liberalise its domestic air transport in 1992, On the regional and international scene, it has been exercising liberalization very gradually and on bilateral basis. Since then the company has been facing stiff competition in both the domestic and regional markets.
The strategy that is being used to counter the competition is by matching and endeavouring to deliver more than what the competition is doing in terms of in-flight service, frequencies, opening up of new destinations and providing road transport for the passengers to and from the airports/town centres.
The corporation is also pursuing to enter into strategic alliances/ joint ventures with other airlines so as to serve the passenger better.
Presently there are no plans to diversify from the core activity of transporting passengers. Proposals to start cargo operations in the domestic and regional markets are underway.
Air Tanzania has planned or started new routes for the year. The routes include Dar-Comoro-Port louis (Mauritius) and operations into Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Operations into Comoro and Mauritius began on the 27th of March 2000, while operations into the DRC are scheduled to commence before the end of May 2000.
The target group in this market are mostly businessmen and tourists.
As explained above, privatization is the only hope for the survival of Air Tanzania. There is currently a gradual increase in competition both in the domestic and regional routes. The privatisation exercise is expected to be completed by March 2001, after which Air Tanzania is expected to emerge stronger than ever.
The deterioration of natural environments is one of the major issues of the world today. Air Tanzania contributes to a healthy environment by ensuring the proper disposal of used fuel and other compounds (used for cleaning of components during maintenance), and used oil.
The in-flight catering section also uses recyclable utensils.
The privatization of Air Tanzania is scheduled to be completed in March 2001. The expected capital injection from the investors should enable the company to embark on expansion strategies after acquiring new equipment and opening up new routes/ destinations.
As explained above, presently, Air Tanzania's corporate plan is in the form of a two-year Rolling Plan, which began in the financial year 1999/2000. Implementations of projects involving substantial investment will be put into action after the privatization exercise . |
