DAR ES SALAAM, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania plans to spend 468 billion Tanzanian shillings (about 201 million U.S. dollars) for buying five new planes to boost the country's national carrier Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL), a minister said late Monday.
Makame Mbarawa, the Minister for Works and Transport, told parliament in the capital Dodoma that the government planned to buy a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, two Boeing 737-9 aircraft, one cargo Boeing 767-300F and one Dash-8 Q400 in the 2022/2023 financial year that runs from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.
Mbarawa said the government was determined to turn Tanzania into a transport and logistics hub in the eastern and central African region, adding that contracts for the procurement of the five aircraft have already been signed.
The procurement of the five planes expected to be delivered early next year will bring the number of planes operated by ATCL to 16. ■