Alliance Air welcomes departure of Air Tanzania

PLANS BY Air Tanzania to pull out of the joint venture in Alliance Air will not affect the latter's operations, says Alliance Air executive director John Murray.
In fact, it could be a blessing in disguise as they have not been an effective partner, he said from his Uganda headquarters base.
The Ugandan-based airline, which is 40% held by South African Airways, is opening up a new route to Dubai in August and will keep expanding, he said. The takeover of Air Rwanda's operations earlier this year had been successful and is to be expanded next month.
Air Tanzania's holding in Alliance Air amounts to 10%, the same as the shareholding of Uganda Airlines. Both are in the process of privatisation, and before this can take place, will have to divest their shareholdings anyway, said Murray.
Reports in the Tanzanian press have indicated that Air Tanzania was withdrawing from the venture because Alliance was a loss-making airline and was expected to lose a further $5 million (R25m) in the 1998/99 fiscal year.
This loss projection is pure speculation, said Murray. We have been in deficit from day one due to normal start-up costs. We have now been fully operational for 18 months and should be profitable by the second half of next year.
The prognosis for Alliance Air is good, he said. In partnership with SAA the airline is bidding for the controlling stake in Uganda Airlines, with competition in this respect coming from BA, Sabena and Air Mauritius.
At present Alliance runs three main routes. These are Johannesburg-Kigali-Entebbe, Johannesburg-Dar es Salaam- Kampala-London and London-Kilimanjaro-Entebbe and return to London.
By Leonard Neill