Fastjet: An Airline in a Hurry
Fastjet CEO Ed Winter (foreground, left) and Charles Tizeba, Tanzania’s deputy minister for transport, celebrate the November 27 launch of Fastjet in front of the airline’s first Airbus A319 in Dar es Salaam.  (Photo: Fastjet)
Fastjet CEO Ed Winter (foreground, left) and Charles Tizeba, Tanzania’s deputy minister for transport, celebrate the November 27 launch of Fastjet in front of the airline’s first Airbus A319 in Dar es Salaam. (Photo: Fastjet)

Styling itself as “Africa’s first pan-African low-cost carrier,” Fastjet certainly looks like an airline in a hurry. Having opened its base in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, only late last November, it now plans to launch operations in Kenya, Angola and Ghana this year, starting with five Airbus A319s it aims to acquire during the first six months of its expansion and 15 within a year. It also hopes to benefit from the wreckage of South Africa’s low-cost sector with its pending acquisition of defunct 1Time Airline.