RWANDA'S national carrier, Rwandair, has
failed to secure the rights to use the Dar es Salaam-Mumbai (Bombay)
route from Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA), as earlier
reported, it has been established.
Reports say that Rwandair had held initial talks with Air Tanzania
Corporation Limited (ATCL) management to use the Dar es Salaam - Mumbai
(Bombay) route but were not conclusive.
According to the ATCL Acting Commercial Director, Mr Juma Boma, after
the talks stalled, Rwandair officials are said to have approached TCAA
to pursue the same without ATCL's knowledge.
He said that the airline had come up with their terms which they
presented to officials from Rwandair but "apparently did not please the
management of Rwandair so they were not conclusive."
Mr Boma said that Rwandair officials then approached TCAA to pursue
the route, but they were informed that they should first contact
authorities in India to see what the Bilateral Air Service Agreement
between the two countries stipulated.
He said that afterwards they saw reports in the local media to the
effect that Rwandair had already secured the route, but TCAA had not
given them the right to use the same.
TCAA Director General, Mr Fadhili Manongi could not be reached for comment as he was outside the country when contacted.
Had Rwandair been given permission to use the route, the airline
would have been operating flights and carrying passengers directly from
Kigali to Dar es Salaam to pick more and proceed to Mumbai (Bombay)
using the ATCL codes.
Shall the airline become capable of operating its own flights to
Mumbai, TCAA would have then been forced to issue a notice of six months
asking Rwandair to stop using the route as ATCL intends to resume using
it.
"In the past we had agreements in the form of joint venture or code
sharing which meant that an airline using our routes would pay
royalties, but it does not seem to work that way nowadays, that is why
we wanted to come up with our own terms," Mr Boma said.
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