By Spy Uganda
Entebbe: Good news landing on our desk indicates that Uganda’s flag carrier made about UGX7.6 billion in the first three months of the year which was collected from ten chartered flights.
According to sources, six flights were paid for by mainly private clients to Mogadishu, Somalia while three were hired for the First Son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba and the late former Speaker Jacob Oulanyah.
Nine of the flights were operated by the airline’s CRJ900 aircraft while the one to Seattle was by one of the two Airbus A330-800 Neo aircraft.
TheSpy Uganda understands that State House and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, paid a total of about 964 million, for Gen Muhoozi’s three trips. Gen Muhoozi, who is the Commander of the Land Forces of the Uganda People’s Defence Force-UPDF flew twice to Kigali, Rwanda, and once to Cairo, Egypt.
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According to Airlines’ acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jennifer Bamuturaki says the airline is making money from among others operating chartered flights and that the airline rented out one of its airbuses at about UGX420 million to its manufacturer for exhibition at the Dubai Expo.
Also, it should be noted that the airline has operated chartered flights for athlete among the trips including that of 2020 when President Yoweri Museveni paid about UGX81.4 million, to fly Joshua Cheptegei, the 10,000-meter World Champion and, Halima Nakaayi, Steven Kisa, and Winnie Nanyondo to Nairobi.
Having started commercial operations in August 2019, Uganda Airlines has expanded its network to 11 destinations since its inception.
Earlier this year, Bamuturaki said the key focus areas for the national carrier in 2022 include “investing in customer retention systems, seeking strategic partnerships, growing our cargo operations and network expansion.”
According to the airline’s business plan, in the 2nd year of operation, the national carrier had planned to have 18 and four (4) regional and international routes respectively, but this couldn’t be possible due to COVID-19 effects.
Some of Uganda Airlines’ operational routes include Nairobi, Mombasa, Dubai, Kinshasa, Johannesburg, Juba, Dar es Salaam Mogadishu and Bujumbura.
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Bujumbura, Juba and Mogadishu routes are the best performing, with a load factor of 70%.
“Juba and Mogadishu are on a budget while Bujumbura is slightly below the budget,” Bamuturaki said in January 2022, adding that with the full reopening of economies globally, the airline will post positive performance on most of the routes.
Uganda Airlines carried 154,245 passengers in 2021 compared to 93,780 in 2019 and 2020 combined, that’s a sign that success is with Uganda’s flag carrier.
