KEY POINTS
- Kenya allows Tanzania airline, Precision Air to land in the country amid row with Tanzania.
- Kenya Civil Avaiation Authorty say the Tanzanian airline has an existing rights to operate in the country.
- Tanzania has cancelled more than three Kenyan airlines from operating in its airspace.
Kenya is said will not hit back at Tanzania by canceling the traffic right for Tanzania-based Precision Air that will resume flights to Nairobi this week.
This comes amid standoff that has seen Dar es Salaam stop three Kenyan airlines from flying in their airspace.
Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) director-general Gilbert Kibe said the airline, Precision Air has existing traffic rights that will not be canceled on the account of the stalemate between Tanzania and Kenya.
Tanzanian authorities revoked Kenya Airways traffic rights to Tanzania on retaliatory grounds after Nairobi excluded Dar from the list of safe countries.
“Precision Air has an existing traffic right and to the best of my knowledge it will not be canceled,” said Kibe in an interview with the Business Daily.
The KCAA director-general said he is engaging the Tanzania authorities to resolve the current blockade imposed by Tanzania.
So for Tanzania has banned more than three Kenyan airlines from its airspace as a tit-for-tat trade was between them that has been fueled over by the management of Covid-19 pandemic.
The latest blockage came after the Kenyan government, for the second time in a row, maintained Tanzania on the red list of counties with high risks of Covid-19 – a move that implies that travelers from Tanzania will continue facing mandatory to-weeks quarantine before being allowed to freely move in Kenya.
Following a second review by the government traveler from 130 countries will now be free to enter Kenya unrestricted.
The move by the Kenya government seemed to have angered the Tanzanian authorities who last week retaliated by blocking AirKenya, Fly54o, and Safarilink Aviation from into the country.
Kenya Airways CEO Allan Kilavuka noted that the Tanzanian route remains key to the national carrier because of the traffic that it brings in the country.
“We hope that this issue will be resolved fast,” said Kilavuka.
Related: JKIA comes clean on reports that passenger flights are resuming
