South African Department of Transport accuses Uganda Civil Aviation Authority of unfair treatment of South African airlines that land at Entebbe international airport. South African authorities say that although Uganda Airlines is treated with brotherly love in Johannesburg, South African airlines are subjected to high fees and a lengthy certification process.
Uganda’s High Commissioner to South Africa, ambassador Paul Amoru wrote to the permanent secretaries at the ministries of Works and Transport and Foreign Affairs last Friday and warned that South African authorities there were plotting to stop Uganda Airlines from landing at Oliver Tambo.
“When Uganda Airlines applies for a foreign operator’s permit (FOP) to operate in South Africa, the South African authorities grant the permit based on the airworthiness certificate issued by the UCAA,” said the envoy, adding that the airline has to pay just 1,000 Rand (about Shs 210,000). The process, according to the letter, takes approximately two weeks to finalise. However, it is quite different, according to the letter, when a South African airline is applying for a permit to operate at Entebbe airport.
“UCAA demands that their airworthiness inspectors should travel to South Africa to inspect the base operations of the airline applying for the foreign operator’s permit. The travel and subsistence costs are borne by the applying airline,” Amoru said, adding that UCAA then charges the company $8,000 (over Shs 30 million).
Earlier this year, South Africa-based airlines objected to the application by Uganda Airlines and demanded a uniform regime of either $8,000 or 1,000 Rand ($50) for the airlines of the two countries to operate at either airport. They also demanded that the base inspections either be made uniform or scrapped.
These concerns were communicated in September to Uganda Civil Aviation Authority UCAA but the authority had never responded, according to the ambassador, while several exchanges on emails and telephone calls between Uganda Airlines in Uganda and in South Africa to UCAA for a solution bore no fruit. The ambassador also accused UCAA of reluctance to “respond to official requests and correspondences on serious matters of national interest.”
Contacted for a response to these allegations, UCAA spokesman Vianney Luggya insisted that we speak to Uganda Airlines instead. Sources at Uganda Airlines at Entebbe said on Monday, the flights to Johannesburg had been cancelled and passengers booked on other flights.
Jenifer Bamuturaki, the chief executive officer of Uganda Airlines, could not be reached as her known telephone lines were off the network and is said to be out of the country. But Monica Rubombora, Uganda Airlines country representative in South Africa, said that the Monday incident was just a normal flight delay which happens usually for technical reasons.
“It was only [Monday’s] flight that was delayed due to operational reasons, which is a common but inconvenient occurrence in the aviation industry. The rest of the week’s flights remain as per the schedule,” said Rubombora in response.