Fastjet raises £50million for expansion across Africa

FASTJET has raised £50million from investors, paving the way for more services to take off across Africa.

Fastjet plane in skyPH

Fastjet operates in Tanzania but plans to expand across Africa

The fundraising more than triples the company's current market value of about £17million.

Its shares fell nearly 13 per cent to 1.03p.

The budget airline, backed by EASYJET founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, operates in Tanzania and plans to expand across Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

It will also start buying used Airbus A319 aircraft.

Launched in late 2012, it had sold one million seats by December 2014, and carried 63 per cent more passengers last year than the previous year.

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