Kenyan privately owned Airlines will now have to apply for fresh approvals after the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) yesterday banned Fly540, Air Kenya, and Safirilink from entering in its airspace. The three airlines join Kenya Airways (KQ), banned from the Tanzanian airspace since August 1st following Tanzania’s omission from the list of countries allowed to fly into Kenya.
Kenya has a rule that requires Tanzanians to quarantine for 14 days upon entering the country as part of its measures to control the spread of COVID-19.
“Reference is made to the approval for your summer schedule application extended to Air Kenya Express. The approval was granted to Air Kenya for scheduled flight operations between Nairobi and Kilimanjaro with effect from March 27th to October 25th. However, we regret to inform you that this approval is now nullified,” Nation quotes a letter from TCAA Director General Hamza Johari.
The airlines will now have to reapply for new approvals “for any operations into Tanzania before consideration can be made.”
The Director-general faulted Kenya’s move to allow nationalities from countries with high cases to enter Kenya without mandatory quarantine, saying that exempting the country from the list despite its President declaring it COVID-19 free sends a [wrong] message to the world.
Johari says that “the ban on Kenya’s four airlines will not be lifted unless air travellers from Tanzania are accorded the same treatment” as other 130 countries exempted from quarantine.
Nevertheless, Tourism CS Najib Balala says that the two governments are working towards allowing KQ and Precision Airways to resume flights “very soon.”
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