In retaliation, Tanzania blocks Kenya Airways from its airspace

Kenya Airways has been prohibited from flying to Tanzania after the Kenyan government denied Tanzanians entrance into Kenya.  

“Tanzania has noted through a number of media its exclusion in the list of countries whose people will be allowed to travel into Kenya effective 1 August 2020, the date that… Kenya will open its sky for international commercial passenger flights after having been suspended since 25 March 2020,” reads a statement Hamza Johari, the director-general of Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority wrote to Kenya Airways.  

“The Authority regrets to inform you that, on a reciprocal basis, the Tanzanian Government has decided to nullify its approval for the Kenya Airways (KQ) flights between Nairobi and Dar/Kilimanjaro/Zanzibar effective 1 August 2020 until further notice.”  

Johari also says that the new development rescinds all previous arrangements that permit KQ flights into Tanzania.   Earlier this week, Kenya’s Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said flights from Uganda, Rwanda, Namibia, Morocco, Ethiopia Canada, Japan, South Korea, UAE, Qatar, Italy, UK France, Switzerland, USA (except California, Florida and Texas) can resume flying to Kenya.  

The passengers are required to arrive with Covid-19 negative certificates and body temperature not exceeding 37.5 degrees.  

The retaliation is a reaction to Kenya’s omission of Tanzania from the list of 16 countries allowed to resume international flights into Kenya effective August 1, 2020, since the airports’ shutdown in March when the coronavirus pandemic hit East Africa.