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.

--- D'Bridge 3.99