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The South African authorities seized an Airbus A220 from Air Tanzania at
Johannesburg airport on Friday. A South African farmer still is owed millions
from the Tanzanian government.
 
This is the A220-300 with the 5H-TCH registration, which was chained after a
flight from Dar-es-Salaam. As a result, the passengers on the return flight
suffered a considerable delay and eventually traveled with another aircraft.
 
In the 1980s a large piece of land was expropriated from the farmer in
Tanzania, but the Tanzanian government has still not fully compensated him for
this. Including interest, the amount of compensation has since risen to 33
million dollars.
 
Because the A220 (and the entire airline) belongs to the Tanzanian government,
that aircraft has now been seized. Air Tanzania will not get the Airbus back
until the farmer is fully compensated or an adequate arrangement has been made
for this.
 
For Air Tanzania, the seizure means a significant loss. The company has only
two A220-300s in its fleet, in addition to one Boeing 787-8 and a few
turboprops. The plane in question is only half a year old.

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