Dar Capacity

Dar capacity to establish and run a new airline

The marriage between the South African Airways and Air Tanzania Corporation that gave birth to a baby called Air Tanzania Company, ATCL, ended amicably recently. Plans are now underway to re-establish another ATC. Staff Writer, ATTILIO TAGALILE, argues that Tanzania has adequate people who can not only manage the new airline, but also turn it around economically. Read on.

‘What a way to start a new airline’ ran a headline in the London based monthly magazaine, Africa Business.

The headline was referring to the launch of Air Tanzania Corporation, ATC, over five months after the collapse of the East African Airways, EAA, following the disintegration of the East African Community, EAC, on June 30th 1977.

That headline has remained indelible to most Tanzanian journalists and other people in general most of whom are presently in their early fifties. Those oldies remember the headline because they were not only around, but witnessed the collapse of the EAC which crumbled like a house of cards.

It had started with numerous dramas, all originating from Nairobi, Kenya which had been designated as the headquarters of the EAA.

Apart from serving as the headquarters of the regional airline, Nairobi also housed the EAA’s hangar.

It was from the hangar that maintenance of the EAA fleets, mostly made up of DC 9, Fokker Friendships and Twin Otters, could be carried out.

The tale-tell signs that the Community was in its death pangs started with other corporations such as the East African Railways, Harbours, Telecommunications and others.

However, no one appeared to care, least of all, regional leaders. After all it did not serve them directly.

But when the EAA was touched, there was a hue and cry!

In fact the collapse of the EAA formally led to the collapse of the EAC.

What was however, interesting was that the death of the EAC actually started on February 5th, when the Mainland’s Tanganyika African National Union, TANU and Zanzibar’s Afro Shirazi Party, ASP, were merging in Zanzibar to form one party, the Chama cha Mapinduzi, CCM.

However, it was not until June 30th that the collapse of the EAC was officially marked and the process to distribute assets officially started.

Just as the EAA was crumbling, a Tanzanian pilot scrambled a DC 9 from Nairobi International Airport, later to be named the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport following the death of the Kenyan leader, President Kenyatta, in his sleep in Mombasa early in 1978.

The objective of the Tanzanian pilot, a nationalist through and through, was to make sure that at least Tanzania could launch its own airline, starting with the DC 9 he had ‘stolen’ from Nairobi.

I have quoted the word stolen deliberately because all the EAA fleet belonged to all the three East African countries, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, including Zanzibar.

However, the plane hardly stayed two days at the Dar es Salaam International Airport as President Julius Nyerere being a statesman he was, ordered the return of the plane to Nairobi.

After negotiations between the two countries, a Kenyan pilot from the former EAA was dispatched to Dar es Salaam to collect the DC 9 at the dismay of the Tanzanian crew of the former EAA.

They could not understand their president’s philosophy. How could he return the plane to Nairobi when Kenya had all the fleet intact and Tanzania and Uganda had nothing? What was going on? Did this mean that Kenya would be allowed to keep all the planes? The Tanzanian crew of the EAA were asking themselves.

In short, most Tanzanians, including a section of leaders appeared in the dark on how they could resolve the problem.

Apparently, Tanzanian pilots and crew had for some time noted one thing, that Kenya was cutting down EAA planes flights to both Uganda and Tanzania.

The only planes that were allowed to fly to the two East African countries of Uganda and Tanzania were either small planes like Fokkers and Twin Otters or old DC 9s.

It kept the best planes in Nairobi, giving a variety of reasons for doing what it did. The same thing was done in respect of coaches and wagons.

Old coaches and wagons were sent to Uganda and Tanzania, leaving new in Nairobi.

And when they finally decided that it was over, it grounded all the aircrafts.

It was in the course of such a move, that the Tanzanian pilot scrambled into the DC9 and flew it to Tanzania.

After months of negotiations, Tanzania and Uganda decided to go their own ways.

At the time, Tanzania had five planes, two Fokker Friendships and three Twin Otters.

However, out of the three former EAC members, Tanzania had the largest number of aircraft crew, 147, that is pilots, engineers and technicians.

There was one or two reasons for that. While Kenya and Uganda saw the majority of Asians forcing their way into various training programmes, from pilots to engineers and technicians, in Tanzania things were a little bit different.

The majority of Tanzanians were black. What was more, most of them remained to serve the EAA, while most of the Asian Kenyans and Ugandans left their countries for UK, Canada, Australia and other European countries where they settled.

As for the Kenyan and Ugandan blacks, like Asians, they hardly stayed long at home after being trained as pilots, engineers and technicians.

Most of them left their respective countries to work in developed countries where salaries and other fringe benefits were higher than that paid by the EAA.

Thus the majority of the EAA crew based in Nairobi and the two cities of Kampala and Dar es Salaam were Tanzanians.

They were still married to ‘patriotism’. No wonder one of the one of the pilots had scrambled a DC 9 with the objective of saving at least one plane for his country!

One can rightly say that because most of the Tanzanians trained in various capacities remained in East Africa, they ended up practicing their respective trades they had learnt more effectively.

And by the time the EAA collapsed, the 147 plus Tanzanian pilots, engineers and technicians were highly qualified.

And all of them returned home to wait for what their government intended to do.

Immediately the EAA had collapsed, the Tanzanian government announced its intention to establish a new airline to be known as Air Tanzania Corporation.

The 147 Tanzanian pilots, engineers and technicians had to wait for over five months before the government launched the new airline through the use of the five, already mentioned planes.

However, before it could start internal and regional flights, the government decided that it was important to do two things:

Firstly, to carry out maintenance work on the five planes after which they would be painted ATC colours.

However, since the biggest hangar where such major aircraft repairs and servicing could be carried out was in Nairobi, the Tanzanian Government could not take its planes to Nairobi, following the Community’s collapse.

Hence, the hangar all the three East African countries had contributed to establish was now out of bound for Tanzania and Uganda!

That could be described as the first casualty of the breakup of the EA Community.

Faced with this problem, the Tanzanian Government decided to take its planes to Maputo, in Mozambique, which had an aircraft hangar where major maintenance of big and small aircrafts could be carried out.

The five planes were flown to Maputo by Tanzanian pilots. Aboard the planes were also the 140 plus engineers and technicians.

Before the collapse of the EAA, the deputy chief engineer had been a Tanzanian, one Lyatuu while the chief engineer was a foreigner, a Briton.

On arrival in Maputo, Lyatuu led his team of aircraft engineers and technicians in working on the five planes’ engines and other crucial parts.

After a month or so, they not only completed maintenance work on the planes, but they also painted all the five planes the new ATC colors with the giraffe, a symbol of Tanzania, on the tail of each of the planes.

Each plane was given a name of either an animal or a national park, the objective being to serve as Tanzania’s national carrier at home and abroad.

Unknown to the Tanzanian crew, journalists from the London based Africa Business magazine had been spying on them in Maputo as they carried out maintenance work on the five planes.

When they finally finished their work and took off, one plane after another for Tanzania, the journalists had completed their work.

On the following issue of the magazine which was also sold in Tanzania, Africa Business carried what it described as an African wonder tale under the heading: What a way to start new airline!

The story praised the Tanzanian crew that had worked on the plane like bees on a beehive.

The Tanzanian engineers and technicians had worked without supervision of any foreigner that was 30 years ago!

They had finally lived to what the founding father, Mwalimu Nyerere, had said during his speech soon after Tanganyika’s independence on December 9th, 1961.

Mwalimu had told the British: “After ten years, we would invite you to come and see what we have done”.

Indeed, in 1971, Mwalimu Nyerere lived to his vow. He invited the British to come and see what his people had done.

When the British arrived they found not Tanganyika, but a new nation, the United Republic of Tanzania, a Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Apparently this is only Union in the continent that has stood the test of time and that has been the legacy of Mwalimu Nyerere and the founding father of Zanzibar, Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume.

The London based magazine published for the world and in particular, this continent, Africa Business did not end there.

It predicted that the new ATC would be one of the most successful African airlines because it had all the prerequisites for establishing a vibrant airline.

Until then the airline that had stood the test of time and continue to was and is the Ethiopian Airlines.

Africa Business named two important things that ATC had as highly trained human resource- in terms of pilots, engineers, technicians and planes.

Tanzania had also senior stewards who could train new air and ground hostesses and stewards.

By 1980, ATC had more than Fokker Friendships and Twin Otters.

It had acquired two brand new Boeing 737 which were christened, Kilimajaro and Ngorongoro.

Two years later it added the third plane which came to be known as Serengeti.

It was after it had acquired the third plane that ATC’s operational and other problems started to crop up.

The problems ranged from some of the workers, especially pilots, engineers and technicians being disgruntled for failure by the government to provide the nascent airline with adequate funds for the planes’ operations.

As for the crew, they complained of being underpaid compared to their neighbouring counterparts.

However, when one looks back to those days, ATC would not have reached where it reached today, having to be brought back to the Government’s fold!

Most of those 147 pilots, engineers and technicians are not only still alive, but the their number has increased.

However, most of them, including would be managers for the now planned new ATC are working abroad for very respectable airlines.

One can therefore understand the former workers of the Air Tanzania Company Limited (a marriage that had existed between the South African Airways, SAA, and ATC), when they say they don’t need foreigners to run the new airline.

The workers have called on the government that it should bring home former ATC workers who are presently abroad to run the new airline.

One can also add that if the government is really serious starting a new airline, then it should give the new management a free hand to run the airline professionally.

It was lack of the foregoing coupled with obnoxious habits on the part of the government and some of its institutions to get air tickets on credits which finally led to the collapse of the ATC.

The other problem was caused by poor management which was caused by appointment of people who knew nothing about airline industry.

It is the hope of Tanzanians that the new ATC would not only be more vibrant, but would reach a point where it would not need to get into partnership with anybody.

It is Tanzanians started asking themselves very serious questions on how they want to run their institutions.

One of such questions is, do we really need a foreigner or white color in order to succeed?

If we need a foreigner or white color in order to succeed, then it is meaningless for us to continue sending our children to school.

Ends.