Uganda Airlines adds new routes

CRJ900 bombardier jets for Uganda Airlines at the Entebbe International Airport on April 23,2019. The airlines is fully owned by the government, which committed to fund its revival. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG 

In Summary

• On September 30, the airline will make its inaugural flight to Bujumbura, Burundi at a promotional cost of $255 and on October 11, it will fly to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania and to Mombasa in Kenya at a cost of $165 and $312 respectively.

By JONATHAN KAMOGA
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Uganda Airlines will add three more regional routes to its schedule in the coming month to bring the number of destinations to seven.

The airline’s commercial director Jenifer Bamuturaki said that on September 30, the airline will make its inaugural flight to Bujumbura, Burundi at a promotional cost of $255 and on October 11, it will fly to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania and to Mombasa in Kenya at a cost of $165 and $312 respectively.

These will be in addition to the initial routes of Nairobi, Mogadishu, Dar es Salaam and Juba.

More passengers

Ms Bamuturaki also said that since the number of passengers on the initial routes have been growing, the airline is planning to increase the frequency on some.

The planned increase will see three daily flights to Nairobi from two, and two to Juba from one, but this depends on the acquisition of more aeroplanes.

The Juba and Mogadishu routes are apparently doing better than the Nairobi route—in terms of passenger numbers—because the carrier still lacks certain certification required for Nairobi, which means it is unable to operate a sales office.

Currently, the airline flies only two Bombardier CRJ 900 aircraft with a capacity of 76 passengers and is expecting to receive two more in early October.

The new craft will see the airline fly to Lusaka, Kigali, Zanzibar and Johannesburg by December. Two more aircraft from the French manufacturer Airbus are expected late next year and will be used for long haul flights.