Sometimes the most interesting airlines are the ones almost no one has heard of. Indigo Aviation from Tanzania is one of them. It existed for just over a year, never leaving a mark in the official annals of civil aviation — but it left something better: the memories of those who managed to fly on it.
Indigo Aviation began operations in 2009 and ceased them in 2010. Its fleet consisted of just two aircraft — both Douglas C-47A Skytrains, the military version of the legendary DC-3. The company had plans to operate scheduled services as well as charter flights for hunting tours across Tanzania.
The aircraft registered 5H-DAK connected islands in the Indian Ocean off the Tanzanian coast, flying a daily route: Pemba – Zanzibar – Dar es Salaam. And since it ended up on our poster, let's take a closer look at its history. This aircraft had a long and active life, from the time it was built in the 1940s right through to 2010 — a remarkable span. In 1946 it was "demobilized" from the military and became an ordinary civil airliner in the United States, one of the many that flooded the market after the war.
After passing through three airlines, the aircraft was sold in March 1971 by the American company Elbee Co to Grinaker Limited, a major South African construction firm. Crossing to South Africa, the aircraft received a local registration — ZS-GPL — and its own name: *Mosadi Mogolo*. Based at Grand Central Airport near Johannesburg, it was operated by the Grinair division for the company's corporate needs.
In February 1980, the aircraft was temporarily registered in Botswana as A2-ACH to operate on behalf of Air Services Botswana. It was used to transport international observers and officials during the elections that marked Zimbabwe's (formerly Rhodesia) independence.
What followed was a succession of local owners and charter work. During this period the aircraft even appeared in a stunt sequence for the film *African Express* in 1989. Then in 2001 it joined the airline of the well-known pilot Flippie Vermeulen — Springbok Classic Air. Based at Rand Airport in Johannesburg, it was fully restored and carried tourists on air safaris in an authentic retro livery.
Finally, in 2009, the aircraft was sold to the Tanzanian operator Indigo Aviation. It flew to Dar es Salaam, where it received the registration 5H-DAK and the name *Wave Dance*. Notably, the new owners kept the previous operator's livery.
In August 2009, journalist and diver Farhat Jah "Raf" boarded the Douglas at Pemba. His account, published by the Dakota Association of South Africa, is one of the few living documents of Indigo Aviation's operations. Here is how he describes the flight:
"The pilot lined up the aircraft at the very end of Pemba's 5,000-foot runway to use every inch of concrete. The cockpit windows were open — that's just how they flew. Takeoff ran sideways: the tail swung left, the nose right, and only at 70 knots did the aircraft lift off the ground — in a banking crab-flight over the palm tops. The smell of burnt oil was instantly swept away by the draft through the open windows.
The flight across the channel to Zanzibar at low altitude took about 35 minutes. Coral reefs and lagoons drifted past directly below the wing — so low and so slow as you'd never see from any other airliner.
The Douglas DC-3 (C-47) was designed back in the era of open cockpits. Flying it over the Indian Ocean in 2009 was a journey not only through space, but through time."
But the years took their toll, the aircraft deteriorated, and funds for maintaining vintage machinery were desperately short. In July 2010, Tanzania's Civil Aviation Authority revoked the company's operating licence. The second aircraft never made a single commercial flight — it was ferried to Dar es Salaam, where it sat on the ground until at least May 2021, judging by photographs. An aviation enthusiast who stopped in Zanzibar in November 2011 specifically to fly on an Indigo Aviation DC-3 found both aircraft abandoned on the apron — the airline had long since stopped flying.
Thanks to this poster, I got to know this small local airline, its fleet, and the brief story about two planes and a handful of passengers, in a place where there’s blue water between the islands and a concrete runway a little over a mile long. Somewhere between regulators, charter contracts, and malfunctioning radios, this story came to an end. And yet a poster on an aviation fan's wall, among many others, will hold a special place for a long time — as a rare print of a unique aircraft on a distant, mysterious continent.