Gulf Air to resume Entebbe flights
Mr Rashid Yahya Ssemuddu (left), Uganda’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia with the Bahrain Foreign Affairs minister Sheikh Khaled Bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa after the meeting Wednesday. Courtesy photo
Kampala.
The Kingdom of Bahrain and government of Uganda have negotiated a deal to return the kingdom’s flag-carrier, Gulf Air to promote trade and investment between the two countries.
According to Mr Rashid Yahya Ssemuddu, Uganda’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, the airline, which suspended operations in Uganda in 2012, will resume operations because of a new bilateral agreement with the kingdom to increase investments and tourism in Uganda.
This follows a meeting with the Bahrain Foreign Affairs minister, Sheikh Khaled Bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa in Manama, Bahrain on Wednesday.
“I am confident that Uganda will benefit from the pledges that were made because it was convened under instructions from His Majesty the King and I am sure that what we deliberated is binding,” Mr Ssemuddu said in a press release after the meeting.
According to him, the Bahrain agreed to assemble a business delegation to visit Uganda in March next year, during which several investment agreements and deals will be signed.
“Within the delegation that will come to Uganda, there will be bankers to venture into the country’s financial services industry,” he said, adding the Bahraini King, Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa is expected to visit Uganda soon.
Gulf Air suspended flights to Entebbe three months after the launch claiming that transit traffic and operations were causing losses.
