President Museveni has for the first time spoken about the changes he effected at the Uganda Airlines earlier this year.
In February, the long serving Chief Executive Jenifer Bamuturaki was relieved of her duties and has since been replaced by Ethiopian aviation executive Girma Wake who takes charge of Uganda Airlines in an interim capacity.
Commenting about the matter on Wednesday, during the NRM MPs’ retreat at Kyankwanzi, the president said following the appointment of the Ethiopian, he was tasked with finding out what the problem with the national carrier was.
“He wrote to me a very big report on why the airline was not performing well. One of them was the scheduling of flights. Such a simple thing,” Museveni said.
“Our wonderful people would say, Uganda Airlines to Kinshasa on Friday would leave at 7am, on Monday at mid-day and on Wednesday at 2 O’clock.”
The president said the report, among others found out there was no consistence in the flights by the national carrier which he said affected its performance
“Now, he(Ethiopian) said this is not good for passengers. Passengers need to know the airline to Kinshasa leaves at one o’clock without change. They don’t have time to keep checking to see what time it is leaving.”
He reminisced one of the buses to Kabale from Mbarara which he said had a specific schedule that everyone knew, noting that this is the same with the airline.
The appointment of Girma Wake from Ethiopia came at a critical juncture for Uganda Airlines, which has faced persistent financial losses and scrutiny over governance standards since its revival in 2019 as a flagship national project to boost tourism, trade and connectivity.
The airline invested in Bombardier CRJ900 and Airbus A330-800neo aircraft to position Entebbe as a regional hub, but reports from the Auditor General and investigations by state agencies have raised concerns about procurement processes, staffing structures and management qualifications.
Wake is widely credited with transforming Ethiopian Airlines into Africa’s most profitable carrier during his tenure as CEO from 2004 to 2011.
Under his leadership, the airline modernised its fleet, expanded its global route network and strengthened corporate governance systems.
His appointment, according to those in the aviation sector, signals a renewed push to insulate Uganda Airlines from operational inefficiencies and restore commercial discipline as the search for a substantive CEO gets underway.