Precision Air plans Sh8 billion fleet expansion

By Philip Mwakio and Agencies

NAIROBI, KENYA, Nov. 22 - Precision Air, Tanzania’s largest airline, plans to almost double its fleet with five new short-haul turboprop passenger planes in a Sh8 billion ($95 million) investment to expand services in east Africa.

Air travel in the region has been rising in recent years with the growth of the middle class after years of economic expansion and in the absence of good road and rail links.

In an interview with Move It in London on the sidelines of the just concluded World Travel Market (WTM), Precision Air Commercial Director, Mr Patrick Ndekana said that a new aircraft christened Tanga, after Tanzania’s fourth city is being delivered from ATR home base of Tolouse, France.

“A second similar aircraft will also be delivered to Precision Air in the second week of December,’’ Ndekana said.

With the acquisitions, Ndekana says they hope to improve on own time performances, dispatch and reliability as well as lower maintenance costs. Precision, which was listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange last year, expects to carry close to 1 million passengers in 2012 from around 670,000 passengers in the year ending 31 March 2011.

ATR is a partnership between European aerospace groups EADS, the maker of Airbus jetliners, and Alenia Aermacchi, a part of Italy’s Finmeccanica.

Local investors own 57.94 per cent of the shares in Precision while Kenya Airways has a 41.23 per cent stake. Its fleet currently consists of nine ATR passenger planes and three Boeing 737s.

In total, the airline will add five new aircrafts to its rapidly growing fleet as part of a 3-year fleet expansion program. Precision Air CEO, Alfonse Kioko said, “Expanding our fleet means our customers will enjoy more efficiency and better services from us.”