Tanzania bails out its troubled carrier

A fleet of its vehicles were last week attached due to unpaid debts but the government has offered to clear them.

Write off debt

The minister said the government would write off its Sh17.5 billion debt and settle others such as the $4.2 million owed by the airline to its former partner, South Africa Airlines and Sh9.1 billion owed to other suppliers.

“This is meant to make the airline’s balance sheet friendlier as we plan a number of interventions and strategies to bail out the carrier,” Dr Kawambwa said, adding that the government’s aim is to see ATCL return to profitability. He said Tanzania was in talks with a Chinese company to take over some of the airline’s operations.

The Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority, which suspended the national carrier’s flights last month, returned its airworthiness certificate allowing it to resume flying.

But that will highly depend on whether the airline will get money to finance its operations.