An Air Tanzania Airbus A220-300 5H-TCH (msn 55047) aircraft owned by Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) was seized in the Netherlands on December 2nd by a Swedish investor EcoEnergy over the revocation of land title for a multibillion-dollar sugar project in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. The loss of land for the bioelectricity project in which the Swedish investor worked on a project for over ten years saw the company lose over $52 million injected with the government ruling in favor of the land transfer back to the Saadani National Park.
The investor claimed the seizure was in accordance with a Swedish firm’s tribunal plea and orders from a Dutch court with the claimant saying that the Tanzania government had not met contractual obligations in paying the $165M award.
The project in Bagamoyo was for the construction of a bioelectricity plant to switch between sugar and ethanol production based on market demand.
On its part Tanzania says it had already successfully appealed against the Dutch court orders allowing for the seizure of the plane with Tanzanian Attorney General Eliezer Feleshi terming it unlawful. Feleshi says the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) had issued a stay of execution order and that the government had appealed the Dutch court orders.
Sources also claim that the seized Airbus A220-300 5H-TCH (msn 55047) aircraft was under full ownership of the Tanzanian state firm unlike its other planes that are either on lease or under financing.
Air Tanzania has on its part been experiencing flight congestion perhaps related to this seizure with the airline attributing this to fewer planes with one Airbus plane currently undergoing maintenance and expected back next week.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”in” dir=”ltr”>TAARIFA KWA UMMA <a href=”https://t.co/l5WIbCXlYc”>pic.twitter.com/l5WIbCXlYc</a></p>— Air Tanzania (@AirTanzania) <a href=”https://twitter.com/AirTanzania/status/1600109418842144769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 6, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>