Swissport, the company which takes care of ground handling services at various terminals in Tanzania, has introduced a fleet of Chinese buses to cater for airport shuttling at the Julius Kambarage Nyerere International in Dar-es-salaam.
Swissport Tanzania is now commissioning a fleet of Apron buses from the Chinese manufacturer Yutong.
Yutong Bus and Coaches Company of China now gets to supply airport transfer shuttle vehicles to taxi at the country’s biggest airport in Dar-es-salaam.
With Yutong taking over the Julius Kambarage Nyerere International Airport of Dar-es-salaam, it is now clear that Sino is slowly but surely taking over the sector of passengers’ transportation in Tanzania.
So far, another Chinese vehicle builder, ‘Golden Dragon,’ is currently in charge of supplying the fleet of buses serving in the Dar-es-salaam Bus Rapid Transport (BRT).
The official ceremony to launch the new airport shuttle buses was held at terminal III of the Julius Kambarage Nyerere International and attended by Director General of Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA), Abdul Mombokaleo.
Also gracing the event was the Executive Director of Swissport Tanzania, Shamba Mlanga.
It is still not known how many units of the wide-bodied buses will Swissport purchase from Yutong to cater for air terminal shuttling services in Dar-es-salaam or whether the company intends to dispatch the Chinese vehicles to serve the other airports in Tanzania.
The development comes at the time when Yutong, the Chinese bus builder, is also introducing an upgrade of the company’s intercity bus models sold in the country, with the launch of the D14 coach series in Tanzania.
China is trying to dislodge Sweden from heavy duty trucks and buses in Tanzania, a country which has been relying heavily on Scania vehicles from the Scandinavian country.