2. 1 2 3 4 5 WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘HUB CONCEPT’?
WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVES OF TRANSPORT HUBS? 3
WHAT ARE THE MERITS AND DEMERITS OF TRANSPORT HUBS? 4
WHAT ARE THE PREREQUISITES FOR TRANSPORT HUBS? 5
WHAT IS THE RELEVANCE OF THE HUB CONCEPT TO TANZANIA?

3. 6 7 HOW IS TANZANIA IMPLEMENTING THE HUB CONCEPT?
WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD FOR TANZANIA’S CIVIL AVIATION?

4. The key word in the Hub Concept is ‘HUB’.
In the context of Logistics, the word ‘Hub’, which in fact an affectionate way of referring to the ‘TRANSPORT HUB’, refers to a Place where Passengers and Cargo are exchanged between Transport Vehicles and/or between Transport Modes.
Typical examples of Hubs are:
AIRPORTS,
SEA PORTS,
TRAIN STATIONS,
BUS/FREIGHT STATIONS.

5. Of course, the ‘Hub’ of interest to Us in this Forum is the Airports: to be precise, the ‘AIR TRANSPORT HUB’, or simply the ‘AIRPORT HUB’.

6. The Hub Concept advocates a departure from traditional Point-to-point Transport Systems in favour of Hub-&-Spoke Transport Systems.

7. The overall Objective of a Transport Hub in the context of the Hub Concept is to make the Passengers and/or Cargo Exchange Process a hassle-free experience on the part of Transport Service-Customers:
TRAVELLERS,
SHIPPERS.

8. The achievement of this Objective requires the existence of a hassle-free environment that enables the smooth operations of all Transport Service-Stakeholders, to mention only the most common:
TRANSPORT SERVICE PROVIDERS,
PASSENGER-HANDLING SERVICE PROVIDERS,
CARGO-HANDLING SERVICE PROVIDERS,
PASSENGER-SECURITY PROVIDERS,
CARGO-SECURITY PROVIDERS,

9. HUB OPERATORS.

10. Hubs are beneficial to both Transport Service-Consumers and Transport Service-Providers.
Of the many benefits that Transport Service-Consumers enjoy from Hubs, the most prominent ones are:
CONVENIENCE in connections arising from Increased Frequency of services and resultant Reduced Transport Distances,
FLEXIBILITY in transport arising from Transport interlining and/or Transport Inter-modalism,

11. SPEED in connections arising from Increased Frequency of services and resultant Reduced Distance between points.
Of the many benefits that Transport Service-Providers enjoy from Hubs, the most prominent ones are:
ECONOMIES OF SCALE in connections arising from Increased Frequency of services made and resultant Reduced Distance between points.

12. ECONOMIES OF SCALE at the hubs, arising from Increased Traffic.
ECONOMIES OF SCOPE arising from use of shared transshipment facilities and resultant reduced costs for the users as well as higher quality infrastructures.

13. Hubs have their share of demerits, notably:
ADDITIONAL TRANSSHIPMENT as less point-to-point services are offered.
POTENTIAL DELAYS & POSSIBLE CONGESTION as the hub becomes the focal point of all transshipment which were hitherto scattered.

14. The viability of Transport Hubs revolves around 5 prerequisites:
TRAFFIC CATCHMENT AREA which is rich enough to attract Hub flight operations,
AT LEAST ONE STRONG LOCALLY-BASED CARRIER capable of operating internationally (preferably intercontinentally) to sponsor Hub flight operations,
AIRPORT PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE which is strong enough to support intended Hub flight operations,

15. READILY-AVAILABLE SUPPLY OF TRAINED STAFF which is abundant enough to satisfy intended Hub flight operations,
FIRM GOVERNMENT COMMITMENT which is strong enough to provide Initiative, Regulatory Framework and Investment Support in nurturing the other prerequisite,

16. The Hub Concept is very relevant to Tanzania due to 4 factors:
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION that makes it a natural spot for the development of Transport Hubs,
PHYSICAL FEATURES that makes it the development of intermodal transport possible,
HUGE TRAFFIC CATCHMENT AREA around the Country.
ABUNDANCE OF RESOURCES within and around the country that are needed elsewhere.

17. Tanzania is located at the very navel of the African continent:

18. Tanzania’s Geographical Location at the very navel of the Continent perfectly combine with its Physical Features, huge Traffic Catchment Area and Resource Abundance to make the Country a naturally conducive area for Transport Hubs to evolve.
It’s the combined effect of these factor that kick-started the evolution of Transport Hubs that used to be very prominent globally in the past, to mention only a few:
KILWA which was serviced by the Southern Transport Corridor,

19. BAGAMOYO which was serviced by the Central Transport Corridor,
TANGA which was serviced by the Northern Transport Corridor,
ZANZIBAR which was serviced by all 3 Transport Corridors through their respective Transport Hubs.

20. Tanzania has many potential areas to choose from if it wants to develop Airport Hubs:
DAR ES SALAAM,
ZANZIBAR,
KILIMANJARO,
MWANZA,
KIGOMA,
MTWARA.

21. Tanzania’s Policy on the Hub Concept is by and large not very clear, as a result, the implementation of the Concept is still largely fragmented.
Nevertheless, there exists serious efforts to put more life into some of the prerequisites for Hub development, notably:
Expansion works currently being undertaken at JNIA, AAIA and KIA,

22. The ongoing ATCL Restructuring and Re-equipment exercises aimed at restoring and raising the status of the Airline to fill the locally-based Inter-continental Carrier gap,
The expansion of Aviation Training Capacity locally at NIT and CATC aimed at increasing training capacity locally in key areas e.g. Pilots, Maintenance Engineers, Air Traffic Controllers, and Air Transport Managers.

23. Well, the Way Forward for Tanzania’s Civil Aviation is to cease this opportunity to initiate Holistically/Logistically coordinated efforts to restore its lost glory by developing State-of-the-art Transport Hubs.

24. Thank You for your perseverance.
THE
END
Thank You for your perseverance.