Spotlight: Aviation experts ask government to boost sector

Experts have said that Uganda’s aviation industry just like many elsewhere is still struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic after the airport was closed for several months.

As part of the strategy to return to normalcy, aviation experts have asked the government to boost the financing of the industry to help it compensate for the losses incurred during the lockdown.

The acting director general, Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), Fred Bamwesigye said that their revenue stream was very much hit by Covid-19 pandemic and they were not able to recover their costs.

"Right now, our passengers are hardly 40% of what they used to be. Aviation is a very expensive sector in terms of equipment and more so now when enforcing the standard operating procedures,"he said during NBS's Spotlight show on Monday night.

Bamwesigye noted that they have learned from the pandemic that they must put in place business continuity measures.

"We plan to construct a modern car park. We also want to construct a hotel in the airport to broaden our revenue sources.We are advising airlines to start including sizeable cargo in their aircraft. Ethiopian Airlines, for example, kept going because they resorted to transporting more cargo,"he stated.

He explained that they have a master plan that also covers constructing regional airports to make it easy for tourists to connect easily between countries in East Africa.

"We want a tourist to travel from Serengetti to Kidepo minus going through Entebbe. Even the biggest Airbus can land in Entebbe with certain precautions taken. We are working on having such aircraft land without any prior preparations,"he said.

The director Commercial Uganda Airlines Roger Wamara, suggested that the country's competitiveness needed to be improved with the existence of a national airline.

"It would also help us harness our resources like oil and tourism.Thanks to Uganda Airlines, you can go to Nairobi and back to Kampala with just under $250. Uganda Airlines has helped to bring down the cost of air transport,"he said.

Wamara said during the lockdown, they explored elements of their business which they haven't done.

"We ventured into cargo and chatters. If you remember, we chattered a plane to repatriate{Eddy} Kenzo from West Africa.At Uganda airlines, we are starting from scratch. There are some challenges,"he said.

Wamara asserted that in two to three years,they are looking at being a world-class airline adding that their intention is to serve people efficiently and safely.

"In Africa, we want to be going to Harare, Accra, and Lagos among other places. Uganda Airlines expects to do a lot of the shipping work for online businesses,"he said adding that they started with an ambitious plan to go to 20 different destinations in a year.

"We didn't know that Covid-19 would happen. After lockdown, we tried to get back to our feet. This month, we shall add Johannesburg to our destinations and by the end of the year, we shall be flying to Dubai,"he said.