Tanzania has banned another three Kenyan private Airlines from its airspace, a few weeks after banning the country’s National Carrier KQ Airways over COVID-19 excuses.
The newly restricted Airlines include Fly540, Kenya Express and Safarilink Aviation.
This comes barely three weeks after a similar move was taken against the national carrier, Kenya Airways, following Kenya’s insistence that Tanzanians have to quarantine for 14 days to be allowed entry into the country.
On Tuesday, the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) nullified the approval granted to Fly 540, Air Kenya Express and Safarilink Aviation, in what is now an escalation of the differences it is having with Nairobi. The Three airlines operated daily flights to and from Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.
“Reference is made to the approval for your summer schedule application extended to Air Kenya Express. The approval was granted to Air Kenya for schedule flight operations between Nairobi and Kilimanjaro with effect from March 27 to October 25. However, we regret to inform you that this approval is hereby nullified,” TCAA director-general Hamza Johari said in the letter to Air Kenya’s operations manager.
TCAA did not give any reasons as to why it was nullifying the approvals, only informing the privately-owned Kenyan airlines that this notice now rescinds any previous approval allowing it to fly to Tanzania.
Tanzanian authorities said the affected airlines will be allowed to apply afresh for any operations into Tanzania before consideration can be made.