The airline is yet to acquire a permit to fly to London, more than a year after it acquired a landing slot at Heathrow airport in London. Yesterday August 28, Uganda Airlines marked its third year in operation. According to its draft 15-year operating and business plan, the airline is expected to be flying to 18 regional destinations namely Lagos, Addis Ababa, Lusaka, and seven international flights to among others; Dubai, Guangzhou, Amsterdam, Mumbai, and London.
It currently flies to nine countries and 11 flight routes namely; Bujumbura, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Juba, Kilimanjaro, Kinshasa, Mogadishu, Mombasa, Nairobi, Zanzibar and Dubai as the only international route.
Balunywa, the principal of Makerere University Business School (Mubs), was the board chairman of Uganda Airlines Corporation when it collapsed in 2001. He chaired the board from 1998 to 2001. He says the airline eventually collapsed because it stopped ground handling operations at Entebbe airport which was a cash cow for the airline.Â
“I used to go to the ministry of Finance every week to get subventions for the airline…until it reached a point when I advised the president to close the airline and I gave him my reasons,” Balunywa says.
The government revived the airline in 2018 and it started operating passenger flights on August 28, 2019. The airline anticipates commencing flights to Guangzhou in mid-October. The airline’s CEO Jenifer Bamuturaki remains non-committal on the commencement of London flights. Balunywa says the London route lacks a market in comparison to Dubai and Asian destinations which attract passengers who are mainly tourists, and business people. He says those routes are also lucrative for cargo operations.
For instance, Uganda’s exports to the United Arab Emirates grew from $300 million (about Shs 1.1 trillion) in 2019 to $1.85 billion (Shs 7 trillion) in 2020. These exports are mainly comprised of precious minerals, high-value crops, and migrant labour. According to the Comtrade United Nations International Statistics Database, Uganda exported a total of $5.8 billion worth of goods in 2020, with gold, tea, coffee, cocoa beans and raw sugar as the top exports. The top export destinations were UAE, Kenya, South Sudan and Italy.
Balunywa adds that British Airways stopped operating Entebbe-London flights in 2016 because they were no longer commercially viable.
“Why do you go to London? London is dead, the fun is in Dubai, in China. London is good feeling, it’s a good feeling to go to London, but what don’t you have in Dubai that is in London? Even Marks and Spencer is in Dubai and there is fun in Dubai. There is no more fun in Dubai, the people in Europe are going to China that is why British Airways left, it can’t sustain this market here because they no longer come here though after exiting European Union they are trying to come back because that is the only way they can get passengers,” he said.
However, Shakira Rahim Lamar, the spokesperson of Uganda Airlines, disagrees with Balunywa, saying “The London route is selling like a hot cake because of school children going there, we are exporting agro products like vegetables, pineapples there, flowers and when we drop them in London, they can be carried to the Netherlands and elsewhere so London is a gateway for many things.”
According to the Uganda High Commission in London, Uganda-UK bilateral trade amounted to over £252 million (about Shs 1.1 trillion) in 2021, while the UK’s exports amounted to £180m (Shs 808 billion) to Uganda.
The mission told our reporter that “there is greater scope for boosting Uganda’s exports to the UK especially if constraints of air cargo/freight logistics and costs as well as ensuring consistency in quality and quantity of products are addressed.”
As a result, the mission is liaising with the ministries of Works and Transport, Foreign Affairs, Uganda Civil Aviation Authority, and Uganda Airlines management and coordinating with UK aeronautical authorities on the ongoing plans to start direct flights between Entebbe and London.
Exporters led by Thomas Biju of Thomas and Company Limited and Dr James Kanyije of KK Fresh Produce Exporters Ltd are excited about direct flights to London. Kanyije says his company which exports about 20 tonnes of fresh fruits and vegetables weekly to London has the capacity to export 250 tonnes every month whenever there are bumper harvests.
He says direct flights will ensure timely delivery of the product, unlike the current situation where they are likely to perish before delivery due to delays.
“Now we’re going into London, into Belgium into Toronto Canada. If Uganda Airlines starts the route of England this company will be able to load 15 tonnes on every flight per week. If they have 5 flights we’ll have 15 flights on every flight throughout the year because it is a direct flight, it arrives in time and we can even increase our market share if we’re flying directly into the market and we have been crying for this because whenever we take our goods, the goods are taken by the airlines which return the money to where it comes from but now they will bring money directly into the economy from England to here,” he said.
Biju, whose company exports fresh fruits and vegetables to mainly the Middle East, is urging Uganda Airlines to have the cheapest freight charges at Entebbe airport so as to attract exporters and eventually increase its revenues from cargo operations.
Balunywa says that the airline should scale up on marketing the various routes and also signing interline agreements with other airlines such as Emirates to get passengers. On the controversial appointment of Bamuturaki, Balunywa said the president must have had intel that influenced his decision but urged Bamuturaki to surround herself with experienced professionals, especially in marketing, aviation and finance if the airline is to break even.
“We’re talking about government money, the minister of finance is his the president and if he sees that is going to lose more money by doing that [recruitment] process, he cuts it short and he is the fountain of honour. Am also a beneficiary of his decision by the way if you know that, they wanted to chase from Makerere and he said no go back. He has authority to do that so he must have seen that there was a problem somewhere and as head of state he gets a lot of information which some of us we’re not privy to. So he takes a decision based on what he has but to me, I think there was a problem with the process,” he said.
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