Fastjet Airlines Limited (Tanzania), also known as Fastjet Tanzania, was a

low-cost A no-frills or no frills service or product is one for which the non-essential features have been removed to keep the price low. The term "Ruffle (sewing), frills" originally refers to a style of fabric decoration. Something offered to customers f ...

airline that operated flights under the

fastjet Fastjet Limited is an African airline that began flight operations in 2012. It is headquartered in Johannesburg and serves regional flights between South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. History Initial proposals In June 2012, to start ope ...

brand in Tanzania. The airline was founded in 2011 as ''

Fly540 Five Forty Aviation Ltd, trading as Fly540, is a low-cost airline which commenced operations in 2006 and is based in Nairobi, Kenya, operating both passenger and cargo services. The airline had two subsidiary airlines, Fly540 Ghana (suspended in ...

Tanzania'', but through the acquisition of Fly540 in 2012, it was rebranded as Fastjet Tanzania. It was based in

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

. The airline carried more than 350,000 passengers in its first year of operations and sold one million seats by December 2014. It went into liquidation on 25 November 2019.

History

Fastjet Tanzania was founded in 2011 as ''Fly540 Tanzania'', a subsidiary of Kenya-based

. Using a

Bombardier CRJ100 The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) are regional jets designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) pro ...

and a

Dash 8-100 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was bought by Boeing in 1986, then by Bombardier in 1992, then by Longvi ...

,"Fly540 Tanzania suspends operations ahead of Fastjet launch"
''Ch-aviation''. 14 October 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2016. it flew to eight destinations in

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

and two in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. In June 2012, Fly540 was acquired by Rubicon Diversified Investments, which intended to merge all of Fly540's operations into its new venture

Fastjet Fastjet Limited is an African airline that began flight operations in 2012. It is headquartered in Johannesburg and serves regional flights between South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. History Initial proposals In June 2012, to start ope ...

. Fly540 Tanzania suspended operations on 13 October 2012 before being rebranded as Fastjet Tanzania. Fastjet Tanzania started operations as Fastjet's first operating base in Africa, with flights from

Julius Nyerere International Airport Julius Nyerere International Airport is the international airport of Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania. It is located in Kipawa ward of Ilala District in Dar es Salaam Region of Tanzania. The airport has flights to destinations in ...

commencing on 29 November 2012. Initial flights operated successfully between

and

Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world, at above sea level and above its plateau base. It is also the highest volcano i ...

, and between

and

Mwanza Mwanza City, also known as Rock City to the residents, is a port city and capital of Mwanza Region on the southern shore of Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania. With an urban population of 1,104,521 and a population of 3,699,872 in the region ...

. Further routes were to be added quickly, both domestically and to other East African destinations. By August 2015 it had come to operate domestic routes linking Dar es Salaam with Mwanza, Kilimanjaro and Mbeya, and four international routes from Dar es Salaam to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

Entebbe Entebbe is a city in Central Region, Uganda, Central Uganda which is located on Lake Victoria peninsula, approximately southwest of the Ugandan capital city, Kampala. Entebbe was once the seat of government for the Protectorate of Uganda pri ...

Lilongwe Lilongwe (, ,) is the capital and largest city of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020, that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in the central region of Malawi, i ...

and

Lusaka Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

. Ultimately unable to generate sufficient cash flow to cover its debts, the airline was declared insolvent and a liquidator appointed on 21 December 2019.

Corporate affairs

Ownership

Fastjet Tanzania was originally 49% owned by Fastjet Plc. On 14 November 2014, it was announced that Fastjet Plc had entered into an agreement to sell an interest in fastjet Tanzania to Tanzanian investors. The issue of the shares brought the total Tanzanian legal and beneficial ownership of fastjet Tanzania to 51%.

Business trends

Fastjet Tanzania began trading on 29 November 2012, and financial results were incorporated in the Fastjet Plc group accounts. Some information had been made available for the Tanzanian operation (as at year ending 31 December):

Head office

Fastjet Tanzania maintains a head office in Samora Avenue,

Destinations

As of March 2018, Fastjet Tanzania served the following destinations:

Cargo

Fastjet signed an agreement with one of Africa's largest cargo operators,

BidAir Cargo BidAir Cargo is a South African cargo airline that is wholly owned subsidiary of the Bidvest Group Limited, an international investment company. Was previously part of the BidAir Services group, a division of Bidvest that handles cargo in Africa ...

, to carry cargo on its fleet of Airbus A319s.

Fleet

The Fastjet Tanzania fleet included the following aircraft as of June 2017:

References

External links

Official websiteMobile
{{Airlines of Tanzania Defunct airlines of Tanzania Airlines established in 2011 Airlines disestablished in 2019 Defunct low-cost airlines 2011 establishments in Tanzania