Uganda Airlines will next year begin operating local flights, with initial plans targeting selected regional cities, the national carrier’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms Jenifer Bamuturaki, has revealed.
“We are looking at the tourism aircraft to land in those ones so that when we bring people, we take them straight. We are looking at [starting] the next financial year,” Ms Bamuturaki said.
She added: “We are also looking at Arua, Gulu, Kasese. We are looking at the business community and tourism community.”
According to Ms Bamuturaki, the planned flights will significantly cut down the travel time for tourists arriving at Entebbe International Airport before connecting to Uganda’s key tourism sites.
Since its revival in 2019, Uganda Airlines has grown from four routes to 17 destinations across Africa and overseas.
“We started with four routes, now we are doing 17 routes. We started with five flights a day, now we are up to 26 flights a day, about 580 [flights] a week. That should tell you that we are the biggest player at the [Entebbe International] airport because we are domiciled here,” Ms Bamuturaki noted.
Tomorrow, the airline will mark its sixth anniversary since revival.
Meanwhile, Uganda Airlines’ engineering department has successfully completed its first engine change on a CRJ 900 Bombardier aircraft, a process that until now was handled by foreign-based companies.
The operation, conducted on aircraft 5X-KNP, involved replacing the Number 1 engine with a brand-new spare, while the removed engine will be shipped to the manufacturer for scheduled modifications before being reinstalled.
“Although engine changes are a routine aspect of aircraft maintenance, this event held special importance as it marked the first engine change performed entirely in-house by the Uganda Airlines AMO [Approved Maintenance Organisation] team,” the airline said in a statement.
Ms Bamuturaki praised the achievement, noting that while it was the airline’s first such operation, the Ugandan engineers involved had vast prior experience with other international carriers.
“This is the first time we are having an engine change in Uganda but the teams that are doing it, some of them it is like their 10th time because they were working with other airlines other than Uganda Airlines,” she said. “So much as it is the first for Uganda Airlines, it is not the first for the individuals. For us it is a milestone.”
Mr Peter Emuge, the airline’s Head of Engineering, said the team that handled the task brought together nearly 100 years of combined experience, offering passengers assurance of high safety and maintenance standards.
Cutting costs, building capacity
With Ugandan engineers now conducting maintenance locally, Uganda Airlines expects to save significant sums previously spent on outsourcing.
Mr Emuge estimated the savings at between USD 80,000 and USD 100,000 per engine change, excluding additional costs of ferrying the aircraft abroad.
Mr Joseph Lukwago, Head of Line Maintenance at the AMO, added that the local operation was a key cost-cutting measure since Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) approved the airline to conduct its own maintenance in March last year.
“We started doing our own maintenance last year in March [when] we were approved to carry out our own maintenance. We took over from a Dutch company called SAMCO. It is a sense of pride that we are in charge of such an operation and it gives us an opportunity as the local staff to further train our own staff,” Mr Lukwago said.
The achievement comes as Uganda Airlines continues to grapple with financial challenges. The 2023/24 Auditor General’s Report recorded a Shs237.8 billion loss, which Ms Bamuturaki partly attributed to high operational costs.
She said the new measures are part of strategies by the airline’s newly sworn-in Board of Directors to strengthen the carrier’s performance. The new board members include Ms Priscilla Mirembe Serukka, Ms Barbara Namugambe, Mr Patrick Ocailap, Mr Abdi Karim Moding, Mr Constant Othieno Mayende, Mr Herbert Kamuntu, and Mr Samson Rwahwire.
