Air Tanzania has enlisted the support of Boeing to advance Tanzania’s aviation industry, with the two businesses agreeing to work on capacity-building programs.
The Tanzanian national carrier’s chief executive officer, Ladislaus Matindi, announced the new strategic memorandum of agreement with Boeing during the signing ceremony, saying that training will begin soon and will target senior management, middle managers, and supervisors.
“We are privileged to have a proposal from Boeing on the capacity building. This is very welcoming and it is in time for the programme to revamp Air Tanzania,” said Matindi.
“With revamping of our airline, we started by bringing in new energetic and very promising young managers, but one of the issues that we have been struggling with is to build their capacity,” he said adding that they wanted to sharpen the managers’ focus on purely aviation marketing.
Boeing sales director for Middle East and Africa Moore Ibekwe said their move to offer training to ATCL’s staff was a reward for the airline’s trust in Boeing.
“Leadership goes a long way. As ATCL gets its new aircraft early next year, you do need leaders for a sustainable future,” said Ibekwe.
“ATCL is an airline that is in the process of becoming much bigger and as our thanks to your trust, we want to help you get there. I need to see the airline become more successful than it is today. I need to see ATCL flying all over the world,” he said.
Boeing marketing director for Middle East and Africa Hamza Bunnya said under the MoU which will last a couple of years, some of the training will be held in the UK and some in Tanzania.
“When we look at ATCL, we look at an airline that we know will grow,” said Mr Bunnya, adding that for the airline to succeed, it needed the right leaders with the right skills.
“At the end of the day the success of ATCL will be driven through hard work, through this partnership as well as by ensuring that we know where the future is and fight for our place,” he noted
The Tanzanian government has bought nine planes so far, including two Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners. Four more planes are due to arrive this year, including a 787-8 Dreamliner, a 767-300 Freighter, and two 737 MAX jets, all worth more than $726 million at list prices.
Air Tanzania is Tanzania’s national airline, situated in Dar es Salaam and serving Julius Nyerere International Airport as its hub. Zanzibar, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Geita, Bukoba, Kigoma, Mpanda, Mbeya, Tabora, Dodoma, and Songea are among the 12 domestic routes it now serves.
Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Comoros, India, and China are among the airline’s international destinations.
