Issue 00668
June 11 -17, 2011
issn 0856 - 9135

www.arushatimes.co.tz

Front Page 2

Local airport goes ‘international’
By Staff Writer

The Arusha Airport at Kisongo, previously handling only domestic flights and charter planes, will soon be allowed to receive aircrafts from the neighboring countries.

The deputy Minister for Trade, Industry and Marketing, Mr Lazaro Nyalandu revealed last weekend that if the mini-airport will be allowed to handle foreign flights, the tourism flow in the Northern Zone Circuit can be increased by over 90 percent.

Arusha, which is the Safari Capital of Tanzania, attracts over 80 percent of the annual average of 800,000 tourists who visit Tanzania.

The City is gateway to, among other attractions, the Ngorongoro Crater, Mount Kilimanjaro, Serengeti National Park, Tarangire and Lake Manyara game parks. A number of tourists prefer to fly from the town to the parks on smaller planes.

Mr Nyalandu was speaking during the official launch the 2011 Karibu
Travel and Tourism Fair an Expo that took place on the open prisons’ grounds just next to the Arusha Airport. The terminal at the moment handles an average of 100,000 passengers per year.

Arusha Airport has been catering to mainly local flights and charter aircrafts destined to national parks with the other larger air terminal, the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) being left to handle foreign and much larger craft. KIA caters to an average of 300,000 passengers per year.

The two airports (KIA and Arusha) are situated about 60 kilometers apart and both have been losing business to the gigantic and busier Jomo Kenyatta International (JKIA) in Nairobi, Kenya which is just about 250 kilometers from Arusha.

The survival of KIA once foreign planes are allowed to operate from Arusha Airport will this time only depend on the size of the aircraft because the latter is yet to be in position to accommodate larger airplanes.