Africa's first budget airline Fastjet takes to skies

LONDON (AFP) - The world's first pan-African low-cost carrier Fastjet enjoyed keen demand on its first day of commercial operations, it said in a statement on Friday.

"Fastjet... commenced commercial flight operations yesterday, with its first aircraft flying passengers from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza, and Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania," the carrier said.

The group flew eight services on Thursday from Tanzania and carried more than 900 passengers.

The so-called passenger load factor, which measures the number of seats filled on flights, stood at an average of 78 per cent, while three of the services had a load factor of 90 per cent.