Fastjet Airbus A 319 Aircraft with a capacity of 148 economy class seats had its first landing at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) on Monday morning from Dar es Salaam.
The jet which carried about 50 passengers flown back to Dar es Salaam with over 100 passengers.
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| Jimmy Kibati interacting with Kasaila |
Fastjet General Manager for East Africa, Jimmy Kibati has promised customers from the two destinations; affordable, reliable and safety service.
“We focus on reliability, safety and one of the biggest offer we are giving to our customer is affordability” said Kibati
“We are extremely reliable. Our punctuality is at 90 percent on average” he said adding “We Were ranked a fast and cheapest airline in Africa and fifth cheapest airline in the world.”
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| Fastjet Captain and air hostesses |
Said Kibati; “Yes we are a low cost airline but, we are not a cheap airline in terms of products offer. We have got a high end aircraft type which is very spacey even the seat pitch gives comfort.”
Kibati indicated that Fastjet is targeting fast time travelers, people who go by road and those in tourism markets. He therefore hoped that good number of Malawians and Tanzanians traders who travel by road in these two countries will be its customers.
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| Jimmy Kibati landing at KIA |
In terms of expanding its destination in Malawi, he said the company eyes Blantyre as the next destination by December with daily flights as minimum. He also said they are looking for Eastern and Southern Africa routes that are within or below 3 hour flight range.
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| Welcoming the Jet in style |
Minister of Transport and Public Works Hon. Francis Kasaila who was present at the launch said Malawi is pleased that Fastjet airline a Tanzanian registered low cost airline “seem to be here to respond to the calls for affordable air travel in the region”
Kasaila observed that, due to high fares, air travel has been associated with the rich and that a lot of people in the region opt to use ground transport.
“This is a very welcome development, we believe that the civil aviation sector has a big role to play if we are to improve economically as a country because when you are using the sector you are able to manage time very well and in so doing you are able to economically runaround than using the road sector” said Kasaila
The Transport Minister also said Malawi is looking forward to have more operators who offer direct flights to international destinations in order to significantly reduce the airfares.
Malawi government issued Foreign Air Operations Certificate to Fastjet on 23rd June 2015. But Kasaila also indicated that government will further facilitate services on the route by embarking on renewing the Bilateral Air Service Agreement between Malawi and Tanzania to ensure conducive environment for the operators and proper regulatory regime.
Reforms in Aviation Sector
“We as a Ministry we expressed interest to engage some of the airlines operators but we still have some few challenges that we need to sort out. Last sitting of parliament there was a bill towards improvement of services in civil aviation. That is very key. Because big airlines they need to be assured of safety of their equipments and people that are travelling.” said Kasaila
“Therefore government has to make sure that services that are being provided at our two international airports are upgraded to standard which will give confidence to the operators. We believe that come next year we should be able to move towards that and in so doing we may be able to attract other airlines” he assured
Fastjet has been given two flights per week due to Malawi shortfalls on services on International Airports and the requirements of International Civil Aviation. As government work towards improving airport services complete, government says will give them more frequencies.
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