On Wednesday, airline officials said that the crane will commence scheduled flights to Abuja, Lusaka, and Harare later this year.
Direct flights to Nigeria’s capital Abuja, will commence o
According to the airline’s Chief Executive Officer Jenifer Bamuturaki, the development comes at a time when the carrier is set to celebrate five years of existence since its revamp in August 2019.
“The entry into these particular markets is meant to build an efficient and optimized regional market which will feed and finance a more profitable long haul market for Uganda Airlines as we grow our fleet and aircrafts,” she said.
The airline views these new destinations as critical additions in their longterm quest to create a robust regional network that will feed into current and planned long haul markets like London, Bombay, Guanzhuo among others.
Uganda Airlines is setting the stage for a significant expansion over the next ten years, aiming to double its fleet and broaden its destination network.
The airline is yet to be cleared by the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority and European Aviation Safety Agency respectively due to lack of an updated certification status.
Of its proposed long-haul flights, the airline recently launched flights to India, operating three direct flights to Mumbai weekly, and becoming the fourth major East African carrier to serve on this route.
According to airline officials, there are plans to expand its presence in India by launching flights to Delhi and Chennai by the turn of the year, targeting the larger Indian market.
Currently the airline flies regional routes like Nairobi, Mombasa, Juba, Mogadishu, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Kinshasa, and internationally to Dubai.
Others are Zanzibar, and Johannesburg.
The airline also plans on flying to Khartoum and Accra in the short term.
Recently, the airline increased the number flights to Juba and Nairobi to nine flights a week and three daily respectively. It currently flies to 13 destinations and 10 countries.
Uganda airlines currently operates 19 flights day, contributing to 20% traffic at Entebbe International airport.
Currently, the airline boasts of a seven strong fleet made up of four bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft put on short haul flights, and two Airbus a330-800 neo for long-haul flights.
Recently, the airline took delivery of another wet-leased A320 with intentions to deploy it on routes like Nairobi, Lagos, Kinshasha and Johannesburg which have seen significant growth but whose operation was getting increasingly challenged by capacity shortfalls.
The aircraft leased on short-term contract comes with its flight-deck and cabin crew, is configured to a two-class cabin featuring 12 business class and 138 economy seats which will eliminate weight restrictions especially on the Johannesburg and Kinshasha route.
“Another point of us launching these new routes is to improve our utilisation of the aircrafts we have. An airline makes money when the aircrafts are in the air,” Bamuturaki said.
The airline is in advanced stages of purchasing four aircraft, a B737 and a B777 freighter plus two B787-800 passenger aircraft with delivery expected in 2026.
According to retired captain and aviation expert, Francis Babu, while the new expansions could play within the airline’s target of tapping into traffic from long-haul markets, it will put pressure of its management in-terms of resources.
“Expanding very fast has its pressures and it means you have to compete very well so has to get traffic. But that all will depend on their earlier market study. The expansion will need more resources in areas like marketing and operations. All in all, it will provide a better connection between West Africa and Dubai for example,” he said.
Some tour operators and travel agents have poked holes in the Airline’s decision to fly to places like Harare and Lusaka first, and living out others like Kigali which has assured traffic to and fro.
According to Mr Godfrey Baluku and travel consultant and tour operator in Kampala, Uganda airlines ought to further engage the tourism fraternity to identify top routes across the the continent and the globe which are key market sources.
“I have not understood the target market of Uganda airlines and the challenge with them is that they are detached from tour operators. While Abuja could be okay, I don’t think they should have gone to Lusaka or Harare – where chances are the planes will return empty- before going to Kigali where there is assured traffic in my opinion,” he said.
