Tanzania aviation authorities said on Wednesday they have reduced the number of Kenya Airways flights to Tanzania from 42 to 14 a week after failure to reach consensus on the bilateral air services agreements (BASA) discussion.
Charles Chacha, acting director general for Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA), said the decision has been made after the two countries stayed for years without aviation agreement.
“It is quite clear that civil aviation is administered by laws and principles. Each country is required to comply with given laws in a given country,” he said.
There has been a stalemate on the BASA between Tanzania and Kenya, Chacha said, adding that TCAA has written a letter to Kenya aviation authorities for clarification on the situation.
He said issues that were considered in the agreement including the number of flights, the type of flights, as well as identification of airports for international flights.
In Tanzania, most of international flights use Mwanza, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro airports.
Chacha said the measures identified in the letter will remain intact pending Kenya’s response on the matter.
“We have been meeting to sort this matter out for almost eight years,” Chacha said, adding that meetings between the two countries have reached little achievement.
Lucy Malu, Kenya Airways’ country manager in Tanzania, said her office has been informed on the matter and that they were doing everything in their capacity to contain passengers in the given flights.
In February 2015, tour vans from Tanzania were denied access to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, setting the stage for frosty relations between tourism stakeholders from the two countries.
The move by Tanzania also comes barely three months after the Presidents of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan signed a pact on the management of the Northern Corridor Air Space bloc expected to reduce the cost of air travel in the region.
