Liberia pushes for Uganda Airlines direct flights to Monrovia

The Liberian Vice President, Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor has asked that Uganda Airlines starts direct flights to the country’s capital, Monrovia.

Jewel, a strong champion of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is in the country to explore possible areas of cooperation in trade, industrialization and infrastructure development said she hopes Uganda’s national carrier will soon start plying the Monrovia route.

“We hope one day, sooner than later, they (Ugandan Airlines) will have some trips to Monrovia. Even if it is once in a week, we would love that because now you go from Monrovia to Accra and from Accra to Nairobi and from Nairobi to Uganda so it takes almost 24 hours to get from one short distance that could probably be five hours of such a trip. So we are hoping that that will help us better link people to people,” Jewel said while meeting President Museveni at State House Entebbe.

“Free trade is about people working together to build a better sustaining Africa. We need an easier way to get back and forth. So I want to make that as my first request if it is possible to begin thinking about it.”

The Liberian Vice President noted that the two countries can discuss how the airline can open up people to people, interlink commerce and trade faster than anything else because there is so much to earn from each other.

“Our fathers have given us liberty; we are now free but we must get economic independence and the only way to do that is to build the industries with the resources that God has given us,” she said.

Uganda Airlines

Uganda Airlines earlier this year received its second Airbus A330 Neo to make it six, the fleet for the revived national carrier that seeks to dominate the African skies.

The national carrier currently operates flights to Bujumbura, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Juba, Mogadishu, Johannesburg  and Kinshasa with its four 72- seater Bombadier CRJ9OOs that arrived earlier for shorter regional routes.

The airline is soon expected to add, Lusaka, Harare, Khartoum, Addis Ababa, Lagos, Accra, Goma, Lubumbashi onto their regional routes.

After the acquisition of the two A330neo Airbus aircraft, Uganda Airlines will embark on long-haul flights to Dubai, London and Guangzhou for the start.

Uganda Airlines in March got rights to commence flights to Heathrow Airport in London, UK as part of its operations.