Airlines Fastjet plans to become fully Tanzanian owned carrier

The local newspaper The Citizen reports, that Fastjet Tanzanian has signaled the intention to disengage from its parent company in the UK to become a fully locally owned carrier.

Fastjet announced an operational loss of over $14 million for the first half of 2018. The company’s CEO Nico Bezuidenhout had recently announced that the is considering closing the Tanzania unit if shareholders would not urgently pump in more liquidity.

On November 6^th, Fastjet Tanzania has appointed Lawrence Masha as first executive chairman, which can be seen as a clear indicator for a planned disengagement from Fastjet. The former cabinet minister Masha owns already a minority of the shares in Fastjet Tanzania.

“Mr Masha will be working closely with the company’s management team to oversee the smooth operation of the airline and the buyout which is currently in progress,” Fast Tanzanian general manager Derrick Luembe is cited in the newspaper.

Fastjet Tanzanian was founded in 2012 after the acquisition of Fly540. It operates a fleet of two Embraer E190 on domestic and international routes. After the launch of its Tanzanian unit, the Fastjet group started with own units in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. After the originally purchased Airbus A319s were too large for the market, the Group's fleet was converted to two smaller Embraer 190s and three Embraer ERJ145.