As a measure to curb down the deadly Corona Virus disease in Uganda, the government on March 25th 2020 halted both international and domestic travel. However, according to the Uganda Airlines Chief Executive Officer, Cornwell Muleya, the airlines are partaking on numerous startup operations amidst the countrywide lockdown and global travel restrictions.
The CEO says despite halting flights, the company isn’t redundant stressing out that they are carrying out routine maintenance and other activities in the first phase of reviving the national carrier.
The first phase involves among others, assessing the need to revive the airline, establishing and reviewing route performance, staff recruitment, procurement of fleet and launching of flights. Muleya says they are currently busy with staff recruitment, system installations and preparations to expand destination routes both short and long haul.
Muleya further more commented that the company is not worried about financial losses incurred during this lock down period as it is saving on flight related costs such as fuel and ground handling. ‘The company has also received funding from government to run its other activities this financial year,’ he adds.
Recently, Parliament allocated Shillings 258.5 billion for the airlines to kick-start its operations in the financial year 2019-2020. The airline expects to spend at least Shillings 59.2 billion on fuel, Shillings 32 billion on ground handling fees and Shillings 14.6 million for passenger handling among others. Government is expected to capitalize the airline for its first seven years. The airline has running contracts for fuel and servicing running for between 5 to 7 years, which management has to renegotiate since the aircraft are grounded.
Since August 2019, the airline was making about 50 flights a week, with a daily average of five flights per plane. The airline was flying to 8 destinations including Kigali, Mombasa, Nairobi, Mogadishu, Juba and Bujumbura. The airline was also expected to fly to five other regional destinations including Lusaka, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Cairo and Harare by June this year. However, following the travel restrictions, Uganda Airlines grounded its four CRJ900 Bombardier aircraft.
The airline upon reopening anticipates adding international routes such as London, Dubai and the Chinese market in Guangzhou after receiving two A330-800 Neo Aircraft from Airbus this December. This would in turn mean an additional 100 company staff including pilots, flight engineers and other support staff to meet demand for future expansion. Uganda airlines currently employs 150 staff of which 24 are aircraft pilots. The company also before lock down was operating four aircraft.
Last week, in a promotional video released by the company, Eng. Ephraim Bagenda, the Director Maintenance and Engineering, said during maintenance they open up the aircraft, run the engines and do system checks, correct any detected defects so as to keep the aircraft intact as they await revival after the lock down.
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