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| Boeing 787 Dreamliner |
Air Tanzania is the national airline carrier for Tanzania and although it has a colorful past it seems to have found it's footing now. It was revived in 2016 with much fanfare and and although I used their services a few times flying from Iringa to Dar es Salaam (a route that unfortunately no longer runs) I had not used their services since due to lack of reliability and my lack of travel on their routes. However, a recent trip to Zambia gave me the chance to test out their services and I've been eager to take advantage of their relatively cheap fares to regional destinations.
The flight was out of the new-ish Terminal 3 (inaugurated in 2019), a modern and under-capacity terminal. I only mention the capacity because the majority of the gates were unoccupied yet we still had to take the bus to a plane on the runway. This is a common tactic in high volume airports but in this case it appeared to be a cost saving method which I think is slightly uncouth and poor marketing for your international carrier at the main commercial hub.
The flight schedule was Lusaka via Harare. It was a two hour trip to Harare and then another hour from Harare to Lusaka. This makes it into a four hour trip when the return journey direct from Lusaka to Dar es Salaam is only two. I understand how it makes financial and logistics sense for Air Tanzania as volume between the three small-ish cities is pretty low.
The flight was relatively full and the seats were comfortable. The staff were well trained and provided great service throughout. The food was OK if not predictable fare with a chicken biriyani, bread, chocolate dessert, and a prawn salad that I was somewhat skeptical to consume. My favorite part of the flight was the in-flight magazine, an in-house production called Twiga (Swahili for 'giraffe'). It is cosmopolitan magazine featuring businesses, individuals and events that are outside my normal exposure. I always look forward to reading the issue on the flights!
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