KAMPALA – The Minister for Works and Transport (MoWT) Monica Azuba Ntege has on Tuesday, July 23 revealed that Uganda Airlines is in the process of obtaining permission to fly to all East African destinations in line with Civil Aviation regulations.
While briefing the press about the status of the Uganda Airline at the MoWT headquarters, she said that her ministry has written to the destination countries requesting for acceptance of the designation of Uganda Airlines to operate on the various routes.
“These destinations shall be operated first to orient staff and service providers in the Uganda Airlines Procedures and Standards,” Minister Azuba said.
She added that “Before operating authorizations are granted by destination countries, they study the Bilateral Air Services Agreements and Air Operating Certificate (AOC) to assess if Uganda Airlines meets the requirements for operating on various routes.”
According to her, the launch routes will be Nairobi, Dar Es Salam and Mogadishu whereas the other destinations to be added after the introductory phase in August are Kilimanjaro, Juba and Mombasa.
“Other destinations after the delivery of the next two CRJ in September and conclusion of the permissions will be Khartoum, Kinshasa, Kigali, Lubumbashi, Harare, Lusaka, Addis Ababa, Hargeisa, Zanzibar and Johannesburg,” she said.
Ms. Azuba revealed that the structural and system arrangements that are being set up once they are live will include online booking and Uganda will be visible even on the website.
“Right now, it is there but is only visible to only Uganda because it is in the provisional mode but when we go ‘live’ it will be visible to the others,” said the minister.
On the other hand, the minister revealed that Bombardier announced the sale of their CRJ900 program to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (Japan) however, It confirmed that sale of the CRJ900 program will not have any adverse effects on Uganda Airlines as a customer and operator of the CRJ900 aircraft.
“The aircraft yet to be manufactured will be delivered in accordance with existing sale agreements and contracts. This applies to the two Uganda Airlines CRJ900 aircraft which are to be delivered in September 2019,” she said.
According to Minister Azuba, Uganda Airlines purchased four Bombardier CRJ 900 aircraft, two of which arrived in the country on April 24, 2019, while the remaining two will be delivered in September 2019.
