Following the European Commission’s “operating ban or operational restrictions within the European Union” to air carriers certified in Suriname and Tanzania, the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) says they are “engaging the European Union to ensure that issues raised during their assessment in Tanzania are fully addressed and the ban lifted to allow any Air carrier certified in Tanzania to operate in and from EU countries in future if they choose to do so.”
According to the EU, the ban is “based on serious safety concerns identified during assessments conducted by European Union aviation safety experts.”
For Tanzania, EU reports that “the identified safety shortcomings cover both operational and regulatory areas. These include a shortage of qualified personnel, ineffective oversight processes in flight operations and airworthiness, and non-compliance with international safety standards by both countries’ civil aviation authorities and certified air carriers.”
TCAA in its statement stated that: “Such a prohibition by EU involves Air carriers certified in Tanzania from operating to, in and from the EU (including the overflight).” The CAA clarified that: “This decision does not affect or restrict existing operations of air carriers certified in Tanzania, as they do not fly to the EU. Their operations in Tanzania, in the region, and to other non-EU countries are not impacted by the decision” and emphasized that the “decision does not affect operations to and from Tanzania of air carriers not certified in the country.”
The Authority stated that: “Tanzania is a contracting state to ICAO and TCAA being the Appropriate Authority for Civil Aviation in Tanzania will continue to uphold and execute its mandate and obligation to ensure Operators meet all safety requirements for safe operations of aircraft in the country.”
TCAA reiterates that “Tanzania has been and continue to maintain an impressive safety records until now and will continue doing so” and emphasized that during the last ICAO USOAP-CMA Audit “the United Republic of Tanzania scored 67.3% of Effective Implementation of Critical Elements of Aviation Safety Systems which was above the ICAO global average.”
The CAA assured all Tanzania Air Operators and air travellers that “TCAA is there to support and ensure that all Air Operators within Tanzania are compliant to Air Safety Standards as promulgated in the Tanzania Civil Aviation Regulations which are in turn adopted from the ICAO Annexes.”