Uganda Airlines, the East African nation’s relaunched flag carrier, is entering its fifth year of operation.
It was a mark of good progress for Uganda Airlines to host the 2023 African Airlines Association (AFRAA) Annual General Meeting, the continent’s most important gathering of its senior airline leaders.
“It gives me great pleasure to see all of you come to Uganda, most of you for the first time,” said Jenifer Bamuturaki, the CEO of Uganda Airlines in her role as President of AFRAA. “We are fortunate to be hosting [the AGM] as a young airline.”
Uganda Airlines is not a new name, but it is a new incarnation of the country’s flag carrier. The original state-owned airline operated from 1977 to 2001, folding after attempts to privatise the ailing carrier did not materialise.
Government efforts to relaunch Uganda Airlines came to fruition on 28 August 2019 with its first commercial flight from home base Entebbe to Nairobi, Kenya.
Soon after its resurrection the airline had an enforced six-month operational hiatus because of Covid in 2020, but resumed its fledgling regional network in October of that year with a fleet of four 76-seat Bombardier CRJ900s and two 258-seat Airbus A330-800s.
Management upheaval
The airline was flying but there were issues on the leadership front, and local media reported in May 2021 that most of the top executives of the carrier were suspended amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
Jenifer Bamuturaki, who did a short stint as commercial director of the carrier (setting up its sales operation from April to October 2019), returned as acting CEO in May 2021. She was promoted to full CEO in July 2022.
Bamuturaki has had a lengthy career in Uganda’s travel and hospitality industry, spending eight years as head of sales and marketing at Air Uganda from 2006 to 2014, and later running the sales operations at two leading Kampala hotels.
The past year has been “very hectic” implementing the growth strategy of Uganda Airlines and preparing for the AFRAA event, said Bamuturaki.
Running any airline is a demanding job, no more so than in Africa where corruption and stakeholder interference are sadly commonplace and media reporting can only be sensational and negative.
Performance
The carrier’s financial results show it has made a loss in the past three years, and Bamuturaki told Uganda reporters in early December that the airline needs at least three more years to breakeven.
The cost of launching new routes as the carrier establishes a market presence is a major factor in a gradual move into the black.
Bamuturaki prefers to talk about growth in percentage terms as opposed to revealing passenger numbers, and confirms this growth means Uganda Airlines is “making money” even though this is not translating into net profitability quite yet.
In terms of passenger numbers, it grew 75% in its fiscal year ending June 2023 compared to the previous year.
“However, it means that we are growing and penetrating different markets and being known,” she said. “It has been hectic because this fiscal year is when we have seen numbers grow. People want to fly. There are no more virtual meetings. Tourism is back.”
Uganda Airlines is seeing healthy traffic flows on its regional African network, and its presence on routes like Dubai is enabling it to win passengers, as its competitors Emirates and Air Arabia [which serves Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates] are finding, noted Bamuturaki.
The carrier’s route expansion is another reason for a busy 2023, which will continue in 2024. “We have been in a business implementation plan. We should have by now been operating 18 routes,” she explained, but the route rights to launch more have taken time to secure.
Understanding the different regulatory regimes in the markets it seeks to serve is time-consuming and complex. “Because we are a young, new airline getting into these markets was so difficult,” said Bamuturaki. “For us, that scrutiny is because we are a start-up where everyone is wondering, what are they up to?”
But the carrier has been receiving staunch support from the country’s CAA as well as the government to secure new route rights, noted Bamuturaki.
“We have been working on the launch of flights to Mumbai and Lagos for close to two years,” she said. “We have been working on London for three years now. Guangzhou the same. It takes longer now to go over the hurdles of regulatory [requirements].”
The carrier’s efforts came to fruition on 19 October with the inauguration of A330 flights to Lagos, while the Mumbai service, also featuring the A330, began on 7 October. These were the 12th and 13th routes for Uganda Airlines. The hope is that services to the UK and China will follow soon as it aims for its 18 routes.
Fleet mix
The main issue with the Uganda Airlines fleet mix is obvious: it has no 150-seat size single-aisle in between the CRJ900s regional jets and the widebody A330s. “Some of the routes we are operating with the CRJ should be a mid-range [narrowbody], while some of the routes we operate with the A330 should be with a smaller aircraft,” said Bamuturaki.
The carrier is addressing this and intends to introduce around 10 mid-range and long-range, two-class narrowbodies in the coming decade, she said.
“The conversation has started with government. This 10-year fleet plan is moving to a level where we are going to confirm it with government to make sure that it’s cast in stone so that every time a plan is being made nationally this is taken into consideration,” said Bamuturaki.
Additionally, the government is open to the carrier leasing aircraft, said Bamuturaki. Its current fleet is 100% owned but with aircraft order books so packed the option of leasing is important to gain access to earlier delivery slots.
“We are already talking to lessors,” said Bamuturaki. The plan is to make aircraft commitments by the end of the carrier’s fiscal year in June 2024; both Airbus and Boeing models are under evaluation.
The fleet plan also sees the widebody fleet doubling to four aircraft, she added.
From launching new routes and building up the fleet, Uganda Airlines can also look forward to a revamped home airport at Entebbe International Airport. Delegates to the AFRAA AGA saw at first hand the progress on the expanded terminal.
