This archive report was first published on 4 September 2019.
On September 4, 2019, Air Tanzania announced the temporary suspension of its scheduled flights to South Africa in response to escalating xenophobic attacks.
Works Transport and Communication Minister, Isack Kamwelwe, stated that all flights scheduled for South Africa on Friday would be cancelled until South African authorities committed to protecting the passengers and properties of foreigners in the country.
According to Mr. Kamwelwe, the suspension was necessary to ensure the safety of passengers, saying, "We have temporarily suspended flights until when calm is restored because we wouldn’t want to fly passengers to a destination with chaos."
Notably, Air Tanzania's Airbus 220-300 will continue operating on domestic routes such as Mwanza, Songwe, and Dodoma as per the original timetable.
Minister Kamwelwe clarified that the suspension was unrelated to the recent seizure of the aircraft, stating that the issue was now in the past.
