By Spy Uganda
Kampala: Uganda Airlines is registering unparalleled progress ever since it was revived in 2019 after it announced maiden flight to Dubai in UAE-TheSpy Uganda reports.
Addressing a press conference in Uganda’s capital Kampala, Uganda Airlines’ Ag CEO, Jennifer Bamuturaki said the maiden flight to Dubai was scheduled to take place at an earlier date but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have now moved it (maiden flight) to the first week of September 2021,” she said.
This will be the first commercial flight of Uganda Airlines out of Africa. Since 2019, it has been operating in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, South Africa, South Sudan, and Tanzania.
The development comes at a time when Uganda’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA is yet to approve the two A330-800Neo Airbuses included on the Air Operators Certificate-AOC.
According to Bamuturaki, the approval process takes 5 phases including pre-application, application, and document evaluation, demonstration of the approved documents and inclusion of the aircraft on the existing Air operator’s Certificate (AOC) and are now remaining with only two phases.
Sharp Progress At Uganda Airlines
The airline company was founded in 1977 during dictator Idi Amin Dada’s regime but collapsed in 2001. Following studies and wide consultations in 2018, the Ugandan Cabinet opted to re-launch Uganda Airlines with six new jets, two of which will be the wide-body, long-range A330-800 and the other four being CRJ900 aircraft.
As of 19 March 2019, over 12 pilots and 12 co-pilots (total of 24 cockpit crew), all of them Ugandans, had completed their training and certification on the CRJ900-ER aircraft.
On 27 July 2019, the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority awarded Uganda National Airlines Company with an Air Operator Certificate, finalizing a five-step, three-month certification process that cleared the airline to commence commercial operations. On 2 August 2019, the airline announced the launch date as the 28th of the same month, with flights to Nairobi, Mogadishu, Dar es Salaam, Juba, Kilimanjaro, Mombasa and Bujumbura.
On the morning of 28 August 2019, Uganda Airlines had its first commercial flight from Entebbe to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) with eight passengers on board.
On 13 November 2019, Uganda Airlines launched the first flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport; thereby completing the first phase of operations to seven routes which was started with flights to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport nearly three months earlier.
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On 16 December 2019, Uganda Airlines commenced regular commercial passenger service to Zanzibar in Tanzania. The three-times-weekly service, brought the airline’s destinations to eight in the second phase of route expansion.
On 18 December 2020, Uganda Airlines launched commercial flights to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The three times weekly operation increased the airline’s expanding network to ten destinations.
After receiving the two A330-800 aircraft in December 2020 and January 2021, Uganda Airlines is now warming up for flights to Europe, Asia and the Middle East in this 2021. The intercontinental and intracontinental destinations under consideration include: Heathrow Airport, Dubai International Airport, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Mumbai International Airport, airports in West Africa and airports in Southern Africa.
