Uganda Airlines should fly to the promised routes

As part of celebrations to mark the fourth year after its revival, Uganda Airlines National Company, trading as Uganda Airlines, has announced the commencement of direct flights to Dubai and Lagos.

Flights to both routes start in October. Mumbai, where the airline will fly thrice a week for the start is slated to have its inaugural flight on October 7. This is a timely development, considering that it will be two days before Uganda marks 61 years of Independence and the Asian community has become part and parcel of this country’s history and present times.

Figures show that Uganda’s imports from India alone stand at $959.11 million (Shs3.5 trillion) and exports to East Asian country were worth 56.98 million (Shs211.1 billion). Finance Minister Matia Kasaija was quoted recently in the media, saying: “India has consistently remained one of the top investors in Uganda with an estimated investment worth $1 billion (Shs3.7 trillion) in the last two decades. In 2020, India’s investments in Uganda hit $200 million (Shs741 billion).”

Apart from business, there is a huge potential for tourism, medical on the Indian side, and leisure in Uganda. The Mumbai could be a drop-off point for travellers picked from the airlines’ 10 regional destinations such as Johannesburg, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kinshasa. While travellers from India, Bangladesh, and China (as we wait for direct flights from Entebbe to Guangzhou), among others, heading to some of the airlines’ destinations in Africa, can be picked from Mumbai.

Uganda-Nigeria trade figures underscore the importance of the direct Lagos flights, which will take about four hours, almost half of the time some of the other airlines take to the same destination. The United Nations COMTRADE says the trade between Uganda and Nigeria currently stands at $24 million (88 billion) and that Uganda’s exports to Nigeria were worth $3.46 million (Shs12.8 billion). With direct flights to Lagos, Ugandans should be preparing to export mangoes, watermelons, cassava, pineapples, Uganda Waragi, among others, as Nigerians look forward to exporting some palm wine, and fabric, among others.

So, unlike its third anniversary, where the national carrier’s operations and its managers were being queried by the parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase), the airline has stirred clear of controversy in recent months.

The best birthday gift, apart from the crazy airfares, the airline gave to clients yesterday, is the commencement of flights to Mumbai, Lagos, Amsterdam, London, Lusaka, Addis Ababa, and Guangzhou, among the 18 regional routes and seven international destinations in the airline’s initial 15-year business plan.

However, since the aviation industry keeps changing, we are not sure when all these routes will be operationalised. We can only pray that the airline flies to the routes it has promised to start this year.