Uganda Airlines Set to Fly Soon

Uganda airlines is set to fly soon according to the government of Uganda, four jets that government ordered from Bombardier and Airbus will take to the skies in December.

When this happens, QU the defunct airline’s flight code will be returning to the skies 17 years and seven months after Uganda Airlines was liquidated and more than 18 years since the last of its jets was sighted. The last plane, a 44-seater Fokker Friendship (F27), was sold to Avtrade on October 13, 2000.

The Rationale Behind the Revival of the Airline

According to the National Development Plan (NDPII) the revival of a national airliner is the third on a list of six public investment projects lined up for implementation in the air transport sector.
The argument was that it would “facilitate the development of Entebbe International Airport into regional and national a hub”.
The NPA undertook an in-house study and developed a feasibility study initially putting the required capital outlay at $400 million (Shs1.5 trillion) to purchase these aircrafts.

Ugandan travelers have been suffering because of not having a national airline and according to the president of Uganda he is quoted saying that “I did not care much about a national airline. I thought that our brothers in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, and others having airlines would serve all of us. That, however, is apparently not the case,”

Other considerations for the revival of the airline include among others the promotion of tourism, branding and marketing Uganda as an investment destination, stimulating economic growth by creating jobs and revenue for government, promoting export trade and reducing domination of the airline trade by foreign operators.

The Expensive Tickets From Other Airlines

The lack of a national carrier has opened up Ugandan travelers to exploitation “The price of tickets here is the highest in the World. It is cheaper to fly to Dubai than to Burundi”.

The cheapest tickets on offer from Kenya Airways were ranging between €218 (Shs951,285) and €414.61 (Shs1.8m) for a return flight from Entebbe to Nairobi booked over a one week period, while Rwanda Air was charging between €347.41 (Shs1.5m) and €518.60 (Shs2.2m.) 

Fly Dubai Airline was charging between €542.16 (Shs2.3m) and €698.53 (Shs3m), Kenya Airways was charging between €517.07 (about Shs2.2m) and €641.15 (Shs2.8m), Ethiopia Airways was charging €556 (Shs2.4m) and Oman Air €651 (about Shs2.8m) for a flight from Entebbe to Dubai, it is evident that travelers doing the trip to Dubai sometimes pay either the same amount for the 3,730km journey as those travelling to Nairobi, a distance of 521kms.

At the same time, Kenya Airways was charging between €423.40 (Shs1.8m) and €544.40 (Shs2.3m) for tickets for flights between Entebbe and Bujumbura, while Rwanda Air was charging €509.89 (Shs2.2m).

Kenya Airways was charging between €235.76 (Shs1m) and €294.76 (Shs1.3m) for a flight ticket for Entebbe-Johannesburg, which shows that it is much cheaper to travel to Johannesburg, a distance of about 2,940kms, than it is to travel to Bujumbura or Nairobi, which are 514kms and 521.26Kms away.

The Impact on Aviation Industry

According to Capt Francis Babu, a former Uganda Airlines pilot, the aviation industry always has a snowball effect on entire economies “Aviation is a high profile industry and it is also a very strategic one. It has capacity to impact on a country in so many ways. It creates direct employment and enhances other industries. Every discipline has a place in the aviation industry,” he says.

The airline industry has the capacity to create hundreds of jobs in direct and indirect employment, while other operations such as cargo and ground handling services and in-flight catering services also experience a multiplier effect on the economy.

The Actions being undertaken so far

In March, government signed Memorandums of Understanding with the suppliers of the aircrafts and paid commitment fees amounting to $400,000 (Shs1.5 trillion) to Bombardier and $800,000 (Shs3 trillion) to Airbus Industries to start the manufacturing process.
The payment of the commitment fees was followed by preparation of detailed bid documents, which were shared with the two firms and the negotiation of purchase agreement for (four) regional aircrafts with Bombardier was concluded and the agreement signed thus paving way for payment of the pre-delivery money. 

The Planned Routes
According to the National Airline Business and Implementation Plan, the biggest number of Ugandans travelling in Africa visited Nairobi, followed by Kigali, Johannesburg and Juba. It is these destinations that flights have been planned with the CRJ900 aircrafts. However there are other possible plans of opening up routes, to among others, Mombasa, Khartoum, Mogadishu, Kinsasha, Lubambashi and Goma.

An analysis of intercontinental travel revealed that the top 10 destinations were Dubai [United Arab Emirates], London [United Kingdom], Mumbai [India] and Guangzhou [China], which accounted for about 60 per cent of the traffic.

The initial long-haul network for the airline is therefore based on flights to these key points, with the market size being used to determine the aircraft capacity required. These routes will be launched using the Airbus A330-800Neo aircraft, configured in a three class layout as per market requirements with feed from the short-haul intra-Africa regional network according to the plan documents.

 In order to develope other routes, government will sign several Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs) or Air Transport Agreements (ATAs) and also enter code sharing agreements in order to grow the business.

The BASAs and ATAs are both agreements in which two nations allow international commercial air transport services between their territories. Once signed, they are registered with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and entered into the Database of Aeronautical Agreements and Arrangements (DAGMAR).

The BASA/ATA agreements spell out the conditions under which airlines are granted economic rights to fly between two countries by detailing things such as frequency of travel, tax issues and types of crafts to be operated.

The Code sharing agreements allow two or more airlines to share information on one flight. That is if Uganda Airlines and Kenya Airways have such an agreement in place, Kenya Airways would be in a position to sell a seat on a Uganda Airlines flights and vice versa. And a ticket from Uganda Airlines on a Kenya Airways flight is likely to show the words, “operated by Uganda Airlines” since Kenya Airways already has code sharing agreements with several airlines, including the Air France-KLM group, Oman Air and Air Mauritania.