East African Business Week

 DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) has provided a loan to Precision Air Services (PW) for US$5.4 million to implement the construction of a modern hangar at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam.
 KCB which was established to provide a wider range of financial products to the emerging economies of the East Africa and facilitate the cross border trade has financed the project repayable in 10 years.
 Speaking to the East African Business Week in Dar es Salaam last week, when Minister for Transport, Mr Omari Nundu laid a foundation stone for the project, the airline's Chairman Michael Shirima said the construction of the project started in March 2010 and is expected to be completed towards the end of this March.
 "The ultra modern hangar which will be operating for 24 hours will have the capacity to accommodate three ATR72s, B767 or Airbus 330 at a time when completed," said Shirima
 He said upon completion, the hangar will be the only full-maintenance, repair and overhaul ATR service provider in East and Central Africa. It will also provide adequate maintenance facility for the airline's fleet which will enable it carry out maintenance requirements up to C-check.  The tendering for a contractor and supplier of the pre-fabricated hangar structure was done in 2009 and the main contractor, M/S Catic International Engineering (T) Ltd was awarded the contract for Civil Engineering works and services.
 The Airline's Commercial Director, Phil Mwakitawa said the idea to construct the hangar had been on the Airlines' books since the inception of the airline, but it the frustrations it experienced when using third party hangars encouraged Precision Air to build its own.
 The airline passenger services has been increasing following the purchases of new aircraft and expansion of its coverage. The airline official said last year the airline carried 586, 000 passengers. "The trend is growing year by year, for 2009 the statistic show that the trend was growth of 80 percent and for the last year (2010), the figure went up by 10 percent to 90 percent," said Mwakitawa
 Recently, PW met to celebrate the completion of our fleet modernization that followed the 2006 purchase agreement for ATR worth $129 million that entailed the delivery of seven new aircraft. The seventh aircraft, an ATR 42-500, was delivered in Dar es Salaam in September 2010. The delivery of the last aircraft brought the total number of PW fleet to (10) ten, seven of which are new. PW also operates a Boeing 737.
 In 2003 Kenya Airways acquired minority 49 percent shareholding with the other 51 percent of being owned by Tanzanian businessman.