Officials at the Uganda Airlines have insisted the national carrier will now come into the business as an underdog but rather a serious competitor.
The national carrier collapsed 20 years ago but government three years ago kick started the process of its revival but many have been skeptical about the viability of the project.
Addressing journalists on Monday, the Uganda Airlines Commercial Director, Jennifer Bamuturaki said the national carrier will be a serious player in the airlines business.
“We are not coming into the market as underdogs but as serious players,”Bamuturaki said.
She said that part of the efforts to see a vibrant national carrier, Uganda Airlines has recruited experienced Ugandans who have been working for various airlines around the world.
Michael Kariisa, the airline’s manager in charge of quality assurance said unlike many new airlines, all the staff so recruited has a rich background working at established national carriers.
“We are not just picking anyone from the street but rather experienced people,”Kariisa said.
To fly to nine destinations
According to officials from Uganda Airlines, the national carrier will first ply nine regional routes including Nairobi, Juba, Bujumbura, Khartoum, Mogadishu, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and later Johannesburg before more new routes will be introduced.
Asked why they chose to fly those destinations, Bamuturaki told journalists that they had carried out research before coming up with those flight destinations around the continent.
“We have done extensive research on the routes that the aircraft will be flying to.”
She explained that before coming up with the specific routes, they took a number of days carrying out research to find out the areas that most passengers from Entebbe fly to in Africa.
“You cannot come up with a schedule without doing a route research. During the research, we interfaced with various stakeholders including travel agents, corporates and many others before confirming the routes are viable,” the Uganda Airlines Commercial Director said.
Bamuturaki explained that the national carrier will not look at competition in the first days but the numbers to sustain the routes and this he said will reciprocate into business when the Airbuses start their international operations.
“We shall create a hub at Entebbe by ensuring the CRJ900 jetliners fly passengers from various destinations on the continent to Uganda and from here the Airbuses will fly them to long destinations.”
The airline’s Technical Advisor, Cornwell Muleya said the national carrier has come at the right time when the continent is integrating and citizens easily access various countries without many restrictions which he said is an added advantage.
“We have already entered bilateral agreements with 47 airlines which allows our national airline to fly directly to those destinations,”Muleya said.
Local Content
Officials said the Ugandan business community has been engaged for training on how to raise standards in a bid to supply products to the national airline.
“We want to ensure all products consumed on the airline are locally produced but they must meet required standards,”Bamuturaki said.
“We have talked to fashion designers, water companies and cushion manufacturers among others because we want everything to be locally made but following standards.”
Aircraft maintenance
According to Joseph Lukwago, the Director in charge of Maintenance and Engineering, Bombadier Incorporated offered to carryout maintenance for the two aircraft for nine months as the airline tries to develop its human resource.
“In the nine month period, the company will be able to train our human resource including engineers as we are helped build capacity and by the end of the period, we shall be able to do it by ourselves,”Lukwago said.
The revival of the Uganda Airlines was kick-started with a feasibility study by the National Planning Authority over three years ago and this reviewed the successes and failures of airlines globally with a bias on Africa and putting in consideration the failure of the previous national carrier.
The report claimed that government loses $540m annually to passengers coming and leaving Entebbe airport using other carriers and thus recommended that with the revival of the airline, Uganda would generate revenue of the same figure in a 15-year period off operational and investment costs.
The National Planning report also recommended the CRJ 900 and Airbus A300-200 series as the most appropriate aircraft types for regional and international operations.
