The carrier takes on Kenya Airways, RwandAir, Air Tanzania and Ethiopian Airlines which dominates the new routes Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Uganda’s national carrier, Uganda Airlines, is set to tighten competition in the East Africa’s aviation market with the unveiling of new routes.
The carrier has announced plans to introduce direct flights to Dubai in the Middle East, London in the United Kingdom, Guangzhou in China and Mumbai in India, taking on Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, RwandAir and Air Tanzania which have dominated these routes for years.
“We are going places this new year, from Entebbe to popular destinations around the world… Dubai, London, Guangzhou, Mumbai… coming soon,” the airline said on its twitter handle on Jan.04.
This comes few weeks since the carrier started flights to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Dec.18, serving the route initially three times a week – Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.
The carrier has also confirmed that Johannesburg, South Africa route, via Lusaka, Zambia, remains in focus for the rollout of the next phase of network expansion. Uganda Airlines aim to not only capture traffic from Uganda to South Africa and back following the withdraw of South African Airways on the route in Feb 2020, but also sell connections from South Africa via Entebbe to the planned long haul destinations in the Middle East, Europe and China.
Currently, Uganda Airlines flies to eight destinations in the East African region including Mogadishu, Somalia, Nairobi and Mombasa in Kenya, Bujumbura in Burundi and Juba in South Sudan, among others.
New aircrafts
Uganda Airlines early this month received the first of its two Airbus A330Neo aircrafts to kick-start the long haul commercial flights. The new Airbus A330-800Neo, a first for Uganda and Africa, will soon be deployed across the network soon to showcase the new aircraft to corporate clients and travel agents at African destination airports a head of commencing flights.
Receiving the aircraft, President Yoweri Museveni said the new state-of-the-art machine will facilitate the country’s economic growth and boost the tourism industry.
Currently, tourism is one of the country’s largest foreign exchange earner, attracting approximately 1.6million tourists, and earning the east African nation slightly over US$1.5bn per annum.
“The revived Uganda Airlines will support our economic growth by facilitating transport and tourism,” he said.“It will be a major boost if the 400 million U.S. dollars Ugandans spend annually on air travel comes to our own airline.”Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, […]