Tanzania: The Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) has quickly to curbed the ticketing fraud, and protected the passengers following a scam that left over 30 Kariakoo-based traders stranded in Guangzhou, China. The incident involved a Dar es Salaam-based travel agency known as ‘Space Travel’ which is operated by an individual identified as Yasmin Ladha.
Reportedly, the passengers of Tanzania’s National Carrier found themselves with counterfeit travel vouchers. In total 32 passengers stranded at the Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, China, after the plane tickets they bought for their journey to Tanzania, which later discovered as fake.
The passengers of Tanzania, who were mostly the traders operated at Kariakoo in Dar es Salaam and has gone to purchase their stock merchandise in the Guangzhou City of China, that ended up being stranded after it became clear that the air tickets sold to them through an agent company known as Space Travel.
As per the statement released by the Air Tanzania, the person behind the travel agency was identified as Yasmin Landa, and it was discovered that they run the business in the busy Kariakoo location of Dar es Salaam city. The affected passengers had lodged complaints to Air Tanzania regarding their return trip to Dar, as they were barred from flying back to Tanzania.
After contacting the agent who sold them the tickets, who kept claiming that all the Air Tanzania planes were fully overbooked, the passengers filed a complaint against this. On cross-checking, Air Tanzania found out that names of the 32 affected passengers were not in their travel manifest.
According to the communication department of Air Tanzania, the agent – Space Travel, indeed sold the traders what was described to be return tickets from Dar es Salaam to Guangzhou. However, then it turned out that the tickets were just for one-way trips, despite of the fact that the gullible passengers had paid for return journeys.
In the end, the furious Kariakoo traders were compelled to pay for new tickets that allowed them to travel back to Dar es Salaam, incurring loss in the process. Air Tanzania has denounced ‘Space Travel’, and said that the agent was not recognised by the airline and anybody who deals with the firm, does so at their own risk.
The airline management further explained that Space Travel had previously used the Global Distribution System (GDS) portal which was accredited to Satguru Travel and Tour Services (JMD) to sell the first batch of genuine tickets but later forged the return documents.
Notably, Air Tanzania reported that their management have already filed the issue with the GDS and Satguru Tarvel to halt whichever dealings they had including the air ticket distributions through ‘Space Travel’, the agent which the airline claimed that it does not recognize.