Air Tanzania Targets 47 Destinations, $415 Million in Revenue, and a Reset of East Africa’s Travel Landscape

13

East Africa’s dominant story in aviation has, for two decades, belonged to Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Airlines built a continental network so extensive that it made Bole International Airport the default hub for travellers moving around Africa. Tanzania watched. Now it is moving.

Three airports anchor this ambition: Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, Abeid Amani Karume International Airport in Zanzibar, and Kilimanjaro International Airport near Arusha. Together, these three hubs handle more than six million passengers annually as of mid-2025, a figure that continues to climb as Air Tanzania opens new routes and airport infrastructure upgrades accelerate.

What Happened: From 107,000 Passengers to 1.18 Million in Eight Years

The numbers behind Air Tanzania’s recovery are striking. In the 2016/17 financial year, the carrier transported just 107,166 passengers. By 2024/25, that figure had reached approximately 1.18 million. Revenue climbed from TZS 23 billion to nearly TZS 596 billion over the same period. Between July 2025 and March 2026 alone, Air Tanzania moved more than 1.07 million passengers, a 22.38 per cent year-on-year increase, and generated TZS 501.62 billion (approximately USD 193 million) in revenue across those nine months, according to data from Flight Line Weekly.

The Tanzanian government confirmed this trajectory with a concrete financial commitment: in the 2025/26 transport budget, Parliament allocated TZS 283.05 billion (approximately USD 109 million) to Air Tanzania’s continued expansion and modernisation. Of that allocation, TZS 185.32 billion (USD 71.5 million) is allocated to aircraft acquisitions, spare engine procurement, and maintenance facility rehabilitation.

According to Tanzania Tourism, the airline currently operates a mixed fleet of Airbus A220-300s, Boeing 737 MAX 9s, Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners, De Havilland Dash 8-Q400 turboprops, and a Boeing 767-300 freighter. Plans to grow the fleet to 24 aircraft by 2030, through the acquisition of eight additional planes at an estimated cost of USD 201 million, form the operational backbone of the 47-destination strategy.

ALSO READ:

• • Angola Aims for a Bigger Hospitality Pipeline with Hilton Hotel Investment
  • Air France vs Ethiopian Airlines vs Kenya Airways: Best Airline for Connecting Through Africa
  • How United Nigeria Airlines Alliance with Guinea-Bissau Birth Air Bissau

Why It Matters: Intra-African Flying Has Always Been the Continent’s Broken Promise

Africa has long lived with a damaging paradox: flying between two neighbouring countries can cost more and take longer than connecting to Europe. According to the Ecofin Agency, the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), a flagship project under the African Union’s Agenda 2063, exists precisely to dismantle that structure. Air Tanzania’s westward push, most clearly demonstrated by its new routes to Lagos, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana, puts muscle behind that policy framework in a way that press releases alone never could.

Tanzania has set a target of 8 million annual visitors by 2030, up from approximately 5.3 million in 2024/25. Hitting that number requires air capacity and the airport infrastructure to match. Zanzibar’s Abeid Amani Karume International Airport recorded approximately 2.4 million passengers in 2024, with projections exceeding 2.8 million in 2025, driven almost entirely by direct leisure routes from Europe and the Middle East. That single airport already outperforms Kigali and Entebbe on passenger volume.

Kilimanjaro International Airport is also undergoing a runway resurfacing and terminal expansion programme designed to push its annual capacity to two million passengers by 2027. The Serengeti International Airport feasibility project, allocated TZS 3 billion in the 2025/26 national budget, adds a long-range connectivity dimension that could unlock direct access to one of the continent’s most commercially powerful wildlife corridors.

The RCA Position

For tour operators and agents marketing East African experiences, Air Tanzania’s network growth reshapes what a Tanzanian itinerary can look like. Direct access to the Serengeti’s wildebeest migration, the crater floor of the Ngorongoro, and Zanzibar’s coral reefs no longer depends on a connection through Nairobi or Addis Ababa. As the carrier opens more direct corridors between Tanzanian hubs and key African cities, the routing logic that has long governed East African safari packages begins to shift.

The wider competitive pressure matters too. Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, and RwandAir have each staked a claim to regional dominance. Air Tanzania’s entry into that contest, backed by government capital and a fleet-renewal programme, introduces a fourth serious competitor on routes that previously belonged to the incumbents. Competition tends to correct fares and improve frequency, outcomes that directly expand the addressable market for agents selling East Africa.

On the freight side, the Boeing 767-300F freighter signals commercial intent beyond tourism. Tanzania has secured approval from China to operate direct cargo flights between Dar es Salaam and China, connecting East African goods to Asian markets with a reliability that sea freight alone cannot offer. This broader economic role strengthens the case for government capital injections that have historically been harder to defend politically.

Tanzania’s aviation reset is not a story about one airline acquiring new aircraft. Air Tanzania’s drive towards 47 destinations and a revenue target of approximately TZS 1.09 trillion ($415 million) represents the clearest signal yet that a second-tier East African carrier has decided to compete directly with Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, and RwandAir, and Tanzania’s travel industry will be the first beneficiary if it succeeds. 

The next twelve months will test the financial logic of this expansion. According to Flight Line Weekly, Air Tanzania posted a net loss of TZS 191.19 billion in 2024/25, partly a hangover from the Pratt & Whitney engine groundings that disrupted its Airbus A220 fleet in 2023/24 and partly from lease and operational cost pressures that state-owned carriers across the continent have struggled to contain. The TZS 283.05 billion government injection addresses those structural weaknesses. Still, execution discipline, specifically, how quickly new routes reach profitable load factors, will determine whether the TZS 1.09 trillion revenue target is a credible milestone or an aspirational number.

Africa Tourism Impact: What Changes for the Continent with Stronger Air Tanzania

The structural problem in African tourism is not a shortage of destinations worth visiting. There is a shortage of affordable, direct routes to reach them. Air Tanzania’s expansion, alongside equivalent growth at RwandAir and Kenya Airways, begins to address the connectivity deficit that has historically capped Africa’s tourism market below its economic potential.

When Air Tanzania opens a route between Dar es Salaam and Accra, it creates a new data point for tour operators designing multi-country West-East African itineraries, combining, for example, Ghana’s slave castle circuit and Cape Coast with the Serengeti’s Great Migration in a single trip. These are itineraries that have existed conceptually for years but have been commercially unviable because the flight options required three or four connections. Direct or near-direct connectivity changes the product design logic entirely.

The Tanzanian government’s 8 million visitor target for 2030 also signals a continental revenue opportunity. Tanzania’s tourism receipts rank among the highest in East Africa, and a more connected Air Tanzania network would channel intra-African travellers directly into that ecosystem rather than routing them through intermediary hubs in Nairobi or the Gulf. For Africa’s tourism industry broadly, every new direct route that a flag carrier establishes between two African cities represents a structural improvement in the continent’s ability to keep tourism spending within its own borders.

African aviation is moving fast, and where airlines go, tourism follows. Read our full coverage of East African aviation, route developments, and what they mean for travellers and operators across the continent. The stories that shape how Africa moves are 

FAQs

1. What are Air Tanzania’s stated destination and revenue targets?

Air Tanzania has set a strategic target to serve 47 destinations and generate approximately TZS 1.09 trillion in annual revenue, supported by a planned fleet of 24 aircraft by 2030. As of June 2026, the airline serves 31 destinations across 16 countries.

2. How has Air Tanzania’s passenger volume grown in recent years?

Air Tanzania transported 107,166 passengers in 2016/17. By 2024/25, that figure had grown to approximately 1.18 million. Between July 2025 and March 2026, the airline moved more than 1.07 million passengers, a 22.38 per cent year-on-year increase.

3. What is Tanzania’s overall tourism target, and how does aviation support it?

Tanzania aims to receive 8 million annual visitors by 2030, up from approximately 5.3 million in 2024/25. Expanded air connectivity through Air Tanzania’s new routes and upgraded airport infrastructure at Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, and Kilimanjaro directly supports that target.

4. How does Air Tanzania’s expansion align with the Single African Air Transport Market?

SAATM, a flagship project under the African Union’s Agenda 2063, seeks to liberalise African skies and reduce the cost and complexity of intra-African flying. Air Tanzania’s new routes to Lagos and Accra, alongside its interline agreements with major Gulf and Asian carriers, directly support SAATM’s goal of building a competitive, affordable African aviation sector.

5. What are the main risks to Air Tanzania’s expansion strategy?

The primary risk is financial sustainability. The airline posted a net loss of TZS 191.19 billion in 2024/25, partly due to the grounding of its Airbus A220 fleet following Pratt & Whitney engine issues in 2023/24. The TZS 283.05 billion government injection addresses short-term capital needs, but long-term profitability depends on new routes reaching strong load factors quickly.