DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – Low-cost airline, Fastjet has announced flying over one million passengers in Africa since starting operations in Tanzania, two years ago writes LEONARD MAGOMBA.
According to Fastjet, the lucky passenger who brings the number to a one million passengers is Grace Makazi. She was welcomed by Fastjet’s General Manager for East Africa, Jimmy Kibati and other staff in Dar es Salaam when she arrived from Mbeya.
“Established in 2012, Fastjet has flown over 1,000,000 passengers with almost 40% being first time flyers benefitting from fares as low as $20,” Kibati said.
Kibati told East African Business Week, when it was given the nod to start flight services as local airline in Tanzania, instantly Fastjet started its flights services and within the year 2014 alone, it flies over 90%.
The Tanzanian-based airline has its sights set on becoming the first pan-African budget airline, so far offering international flights to Johannesburg in South Africa, Lusaka in Zambia and Harare in Zimbabwe.
Locally it covers routes between Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Kilimanjaro, Mbeya with recently South Africa’s Oliver Tambo International Airport to Zanzibar.
With ambitious plans to create Africa’s first pan-continental airline, Fastjet has introduced international standards of safety, quality, security and reliability with 90% of all flights arriving on time. Low-cost is quite simply the avoidance of costly frills, offering customers the lowest possible fares in addition to pay-as-you travel extras. This affords passengers the flexibility to pay for additional services such as a bag or refreshment rather than having to pay for it regardless whether you want it or not.
According to Fastjet’s Interim Results for the six months ending June 2014, the airline’s numbers are on the rise with first-half revenues growing by 96% to $19 million, after recording a 41.5% increase in the number of passengers flown.
