Aviation family in Uganda back to happy times?
The topic of Uganda Airlines is very sensitive. Its return shrouded in legal and operational mystery. Finally some things became clear on the day the planes landed in Entebbe. First Lady, Education Minister Janet Museveni, a former air hostess with the defunct East African Airways of the EAC fame, is a big fan. She accompanied her husband, the President, to inspect the cabin and probably first met her husband on a similar transport while he worked in the president’s office as an intelligence officer between 1970 and 1971.
A rather thoughtful piece was added by Ms Rose Akol, a former minister of Internal Affairs and member of the East African Legislative Assembly, whose last job with Uganda Airlines was chief internal auditor. Going by Ms Akol’s general comport, you can take she learnt a few things about self-preservation and image in the cut-throat airline industry. Actually Ms Akol herself is a very good friend of the First Lady.
I scanned social media for some familiar names from the Uganda Airlines Family. My former schoolmate, Anthony Ajiku, whose father was a former minister of Works and later general manager of Uganda Airlines. Ajiku has done every job in town - sports enthusiast, journalist, eco-entrepreneur and now manager/owner of a security company. Ajiku mostly silent on his Facebook page, broke in song.
I did not know much about Uganda Airlines, but I know many people in the Uganda Airlines family. Ugandan travel agents, alumna of Uganda Airlines, were some of the best in the industry, much sought after, they used to attend a course in Jamaica that exposed them to world electronic reservation system that they did wonders clicking on computers issuing tickets to passengers who sought their services. Former Uganda Airline key personnel like Frederick Obbo, the lawyer, John Lukyamuzi, the accountant, Edward Semambya, Kizza Besigye’s roommate at Makerere, also an accountant, show you how deep in our villages, Uganda Airlines had recruited.
In fact, it is still a testament to Uganda’s geographical diversity that the chief captain of the fleet is Captain Etiang. One of my childhood friends Richard Oloka, an aviation captain next door, is a son of another pilot.
As our studies progressed, Oloka ended up in Makerere University to read Mathematics and Physical Sciences. One year later, Oloka bolted from university to enrol in Soroti Flying School on his way to becoming first a twin engine pilot and later jet engine pilot.
Oloka had a decisiveness of never looking back, a primary quality of pilots who must guide these huge beasts within precision on runways at take-off and landing at blistering speeds.
The success or failure of Uganda Airlines now depends on several factors. First, stripped of the lucrative baggage handling and airport management systems, will it make enough margin on tickets? Second by choice of routes, which ones should take priority, Kenya Airlines, our next door neighbour, has cut flights from 82 a day to just 36 and potentially still dropping victims of the deep State that has sucked its coffers dry, but also victims of two cycles of bad hedging in the fuel business.
Secondly, the Airline will need a lot of capitalisation, the aircraft Uganda acquired are to speak modestly, kigaati-type far from the beauties that patrol the earth’s skies day and night. Bombardier has high noise levels, and lacks in comfort, it’s perhaps only good for regional flights and will face blistering competition from Air Rwanda (itself facing substantial losses), Kenya Airways and Air Tanzania.
However, Uganda badly needed an airline to capture the imagination of our young people. A country without a train system or an aviation or marine navigation system, lacks a sense of time and distance or even finer calibration.
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]
