Air Tanzania to carry out second evacuation of citizens from India

Dar es Salaam,

Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) will on June 15 operate a second charter evacuation flight to repatriate Tanzanian nationals stranded in India following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.        

The national carrier’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, is slated to leave Dar es Salaam on June 15 for Mumbai via Delhi. It will then spend some few hours at Delhi before it departs for Mumbai at, where it is expected to land at 1910Hrs.

The flight carrying Tanzanian nationals will then on the same day fly back from Mumbai to Dar es Salaam at 2040 hours and arrive at 00.10 hours. 

“We will also use Monday's opportunity to repatriate Indian nationals stranded in Tanzania due to the same reason,” ATCL managing director Ladislaus Matindi told The Citizen on the phone. 

He did not disclose the number of people to be repatriated. 

“Evacuation flight is not about the number of people, it is about saving people in difficult times,” Mr Matindi said when questioned on how many Tanzanians will be brought back home. 

ATCL operated its first charter evacuation flight from Dar es Salaam to Mumbai on the evening of May 14 and returned home the following day.  

Countries around the world have imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, leading to the grounding of most global airlines.

Tanzania had also stopped commercial passenger flights on April 11 in the wake of the Covid-19, but, three weeks ago, it reopened its airspace to both scheduled and non-scheduled international commercial passenger flights.