President Samia says Air Tanzania will be nurtured strategically

Dar es Salaam. President Samia Suluhu Hassan has said that government will continue to nurture national carrier Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) strategically to enable it to operate effectively.

"The company has been operating at a loss but this is because it inherited huge debts and therefore as a government we need to strategize on the way forward,” she said.

She said the government will look at a possibility of providing debt relief and some taxes and levies as is done in other countries so that it can thrive.

"The aviation business is difficult, we will try to study the trends of this business in the world and see how to improve the company,” she said.

She noted that the government will not allow the company to continue incurring losses after significant investments that have been made, noting that investments will also be made in acquiring human resources that have the ability to run the organization commercially.

According to her the government would do a thorough analysis and make sure that experts push the company forward.

The promise comes at a time when a new report suggest that airlines face another bleak year ahead with steeper losses than previously forecast, as some regions struggle to speed up Covid-19 vaccination campaigns and control virus variants, an industry group said Wednesday.

The industry is expected to register net post-tax losses of $47.7 billion (39.7 billion euros) in 2021, greater than the $38 billion forecast in December, according to the International Air Transport Association