fastjet Tanzania, the low-cost pan-African airline, is celebrating the major milestone of flying one million passengers across the African continent.
This milestone, coming shortly after the airline’s second birthday celebration in November 2014, represents another significant achievement for the low-cost airline as it is embraced into the hearts and minds of travellers in Tanzania and further afield across East and Southern Africa.
The first fastjet flights from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza in Tanzania took off in November 2012 and the airline has since flown more than 9,590 flights across its four domestic Tanzanian destinations of Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Kilimanjaro, and Mbeya, and its four international destinations from Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg in South Africa, Lusaka in Zambia, Harare in Zimbabwe and Entebbe in Uganda.
fastjet fares on domestic routes in Tanzania start from as little as US$20 one-way, with international fares costing as little as US$50 one-way, excluding airport and government taxes. These affordable fares have seen the airline being named the cheapest low-cost carrier in Africa and the fifth cheapest low-cost carrier in the world by flight comparison site, WhichAirline.com.
Jimmy Kibati, fastjet’s General Manager for East Africa, said that fastjet’s low cost fares had made air travel affordable and accessible to more Africans than ever before, enabling them to fly more often for business and leisure.
“fastjet Tanzania has sold just over 100,000 seats at our cheapest domestic and international fares of US$20 and US$50 respectively, and we have grown our fleet to three A319 aircraft,” Kibati added.
“Furthermore, we have increased flights to more than 70 scheduled return flights a week across our domestic and international destinations.”
fastjet’s busiest destination from Dar es Salaam is Mwanza with nearly 440,000 passengers flying into and out of Mwanza since flights started in November 2012. The airline revealed that it has carried nearly half a million items of baggage in line with its policy of charging passengers for items of luggage, which is consistent with low-cost airline best practice worldwide.
“This figure is an indication of how different passengers have different luggage requirements, with nearly half of all fastjet passengers travelling with no checked in luggage at all,” says Kibati. “This shows that passengers are exercising their choice of how much they pay for their fares, making sure that those who are travelling without luggage are not subsidising those who do have luggage,” said Kibati.
Highlighting the impact that affordable air travel can have on the growth of African economies is the US$10 million figure in airport and government fees and taxes that fastjet Tanzania estimates it has collected from its passengers on behalf of the various countries and airports that it flies to and from.
Since fastjet flights from Dar es Salaam took off in November 2012, the airline has directly employed more than 153 people in Tanzania, and it estimates that it has indirectly created employment for a further 500+ in secondary services.
“A less conventional aviation reporting figure, but one that indicates how low-cost air travel can have a very positive, if unexpected, impact on trade and commerce points is the 35,000 pales of fish weighing an approximate 700,000 kilograms that fastjet carries on our Mwanza – Dar es Salaam route,” said Kibati.
The airline also hailed the establishment of the Lusaka – Dar es Salaam route as having boosted the growing trade relationships between Zambia and Tanzania, with informal traders who travel to Dar es Salaam to purchase goods to bring back to Lusaka for resale representing a significant number of the passengers on this route.
“From never having flown before and previously having to travel by bus for 24 hours to Dar es Salaam and 24 hours back to Lusaka to make their businesses work, these passengers are now ‘frequent flyers’, and are a great illustration of how people from all walks of life have benefited from low-cost air travel,” said Kibati.
“In 2015, with continued growth across Africa on the fastjet network in our sights, fastjet looks forward to offering passengers more destinations, more flights, and more low fares,” Kibati concluded.
