In March last year, some 34,266 passengers flew on Fastjet’s Airbus A319 fleet, while in March 2015, the airline carried 56,808 passengers, an increase of 66 percent.

Year-on-year accumulated, the result looks even better, as in the 12 months ending March 31, the airline carried 661,909 passengers compared to 385,532 a year earlier, an increase of 72 percent.

Load factors, an important indicator, also rose by 3 percentage points to 70 percent in 2015, while punctuality, i.e., departure from the gate within 15 minutes of scheduled departure time, stood at 91 percent.

Ed Winter, who is now full-time CEO of Fastjet PLC again after passing on the mantle as Chairman of the Board two weeks ago, had this to say when making the announcement: “I am delighted to see our passenger numbers continue to rise year-on-year by 66%. This clearly demonstrates the growth that Fastjet has achieved as our low-cost model continues to stimulate the Tanzanian air travel market. I am also pleased with the continued growth of our network and aircraft utilization with the launch of 2 new routes in March. Linking Kilimanjaro and Mwanza provides a reliable and affordable service for these commercially-important areas, whilst serving Entebbe from Kilimanjaro provides direct tourist and business opportunities between Tanzania and Uganda.”

Meanwhile, the bilateral talks between Tanzania and Kenya are much awaited in airline and passenger circles, as very likely a final decision will be taken on Fastjet’s application for landing rights on the route from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, the blocking of which for nearly a year by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority had early last month led to a sharp counter reaction by the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority when they cut flights from Kenya to Tanzania by some 60 percent.