Air Tanzania: Our national pride

It gives new hope for stakeholders who prefer service diversity in the aviation sector in a market that is currently dominated by privately controlled airlines.

According to President John Magufuli, the procurement of two Bombardier D8 Q400 aircraft results from a lesson he got from his Rwandan counterpart, President Paul Kagame.

The president says the aircraft will operate both domestic as well as regional routes. First, we would like to commend the government on this bold initiative. It has been witnessed that many local as well as foreign travellers prefer flying with a national airline – a mix of national pride and enthusiasm.

And, on top of that, we would equally salute the president as head of state for borrowing a leaf from Rwanda which started from scratch to have one of the fastest growing national airlines in the region, which is currently dominated by Kenya Airways, which, though currently in financial doldrums, is undergoing a shake-up in its operations.

We tend to concur with the government initiative, for we do understand that flag carriers are an engine for economic growth and trade and for implementation of government objectives.

Tanzania, as a country, is endowed with abundant natural resources, including tourism and any initiatives on the revival of the flag carrier would add value to our undertakings as a serious and brave nation with sophisticated and reliable means of air transport.

Why national carriers are so important? For instance, some would say that there is no need for a country to have a national airline, giving examples of countries – some in the developed world – which have survived without one.

You could hear them talk of, say, Belgium which has survived without Sabena, or that Singapore serves its commercial aviation needs and achieves its trade objectives based on market forces.

They don’t say anything about the failure associated with the collapse of their flag carriers, or even cite positive examples such as Ethiopian Airlines.

It should be noted that easing the means of transport is advantageous to a country like ours that would get more from carrying tourists into the country and contributing to facilitating trade and investments, among others.

For instance, we have recently seen some countries strategically positioning themselves in trade and investment-related issues. Turkey is one of such countries which, if it aspires to increase trade with Tanzania, for example, one way of doing that is to add routes - as it has so far done.

Leaving apart decisions of how people coming to our country should travel might not achieve the desired results, we have got to be part of the environment that enables them to be here for our growth.

Equally, we do understand the essence of national pride with a national carrier and that perhaps the key term in national flag carrier is simply a flag.

We are of the observation that this sort of perception has to go if we are to make profit from a national carrier operating commercially. This should be the only way we can get rid of a mere symbolic notion associated to when a country is having a strong national airline.

We have reached a situation where we have to accept in real terms that national pride should not take precedence over economic reason. This can be possible through seriousness.

We should look back and make a realistic assessment of what brought us where we are. The airline management should not be drawn from general management. It should be one with competent insight into how airlines are efficiently and profitably run, unlike in the past when someone with technical know-how on real estate management would be appointed to run the ‘birds’.

We should not just end up borrowing a leaf from Rwanda, but also go north - to Ethiopia – which seems to be even teaching the first world how aircraft are commercially and profitably managed.