Dar needs 63bn/- for airport expansion

CONSTRUCTION of terminal three and expansion of terminal two at Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam has stalled due to lack of 55 million US dollars (63bn/-) needed for compensation of people living around the area. About 30 million US dollars (34.8bn/-) is for compensation to people living around the airport at Kipawa who are required to vacate to pave way for construction of terminal three. Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) also requires, as a matter of urgency, some 25m US dollars (about 30bn/-) for expansion of the highly congested terminal two, a factor that dents the country’s good image. Strategies to increase the number of tourists to one million by 2010 are bearing fruits but the terminal buildings at points of entry and departure as well as the state of the national flag carrier taint the good image of Tanzania as a tourist destination. Industry watchers claim that Tanzania as a tourist destination was not competitive in the region and if things would not be improved tourists might land at a neighbouring country and come to view the country’s attractions by road. Terminal two at the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Airport was designed for one million passengers a year, but the facility handles 1.5 million people hence the congestion resulting into long queues at checking in and immigration counters. The national flag carrier, Air Tanzania Corporation (ATC), has unreliable schedule due to a number of factors including few aircraft and when any develop a snag spares are not readily available, not even a back-up plane. Officials with the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Tanzania Airport Authorities (TAA) and Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) expressed concern over the status of the terminal saying lack of funds to expand it was a major setback. The Director of Transport in the Ministry, Dr Bartholomew Lufunjo, said that the government was scouting for an appropriate strategic investor to undertake expansion programmes at the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Airport. He said that recently the government held discussions with one prospective investor from the Far East who has developed interest on expansion of the airport and ATC. “The truth is that we are seeing the increasing number of tourists coming while the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Airport is yet to be expanded. The government has no funds. The only way out is to go Private Public Partnership (PPP),” he said. The Director General of TAA, Mr Prosper Tesha, simply said: “The lounges at terminal two have become too small. The number of travellers has increased. Revenue collected by TAA was spent on maintaining other airports including the non-economical viable ones hence not having cash to carry out expansion programme at the terminal whose demand was on the increase, he said. The Executive Secretary of Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO), Mr Mustapha Akunaay, says in 2005 some 612,754 tourists brought in 825.5 m US dollars and the following year the number grew to 641,124 and the country earned 862m US dollars from them. Last year some 719,031 tourist came to Tanzania bringing in 1bn US dollars. This year the number is expected to reach 800,000 and the money to be earned is about 1.3bn/-. The Director General of TCAA, Ms Magret Munyagi, said that terminal two and that of Zanzibar were not in conformity with civil aviation standards because they were too small to handle passengers flown there by bigger aircraft. TCAA would have closed the terminals if they were privately owned but since they belong to the government some mercy has been applied because efforts were underway to improve the situation.