According to its draft fifteen year operating and business plan, Uganda Airlines has not acquired a permit to fly to London more than a year after it acquired a landing slot at Heathrow Airport in London.
Uganda Airlines is expected to be flying to 18 regional destinations which are Lagos, Addis Ababa, Lusaka, and seven international flights to among others Dubai, Guanghzou, Amsterdam, Mumbai, and London. However, it is currently flying to ten regional destinations and Dubai is the only international route.
On why London is not listed as one of international destinations, Professor Wasswa Balunywa, the former Board Chairman of Uganda Airlines Corporation, says Uganda Airlines should focus on commencing flights to China and not the United Kingdom.
He was responding to questions regarding why Uganda Airlines has not acquired a permit to fly to London more than a year after it acquired a landing slot at Heathrow Airport in London.
Uganda Airlines marked its third year in operation on August 28.
Balunywa, who is 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 International Airport.
“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 28th, 2019. It currently operates ten regional flights namely Nairobi, Juba, Mogadishu, and Dubai as the only international route.
‘Uganda Airlines has not acquired a permit to fly to London’
