This brand new week, we bring you our fresh new weekly Top Ten (10) digest for the most important things in Uganda’s Tourism, the world of Aviation and Travel that have trending especially in this COVID-19 Era. As always, we will be giving you highlights that make News rounds all through from start of the week. Below is our Weekly Newsletter for your readership.
01. Eight African Airlines on the brink despite Governments pledging billions in Aid
Eight airlines in Africa filed for bankruptcy or entered business administration over the past 12 months despite a handful receiving more than $2 billion in government aid.
African airlines have felt the impact of the COVID-19 crisis particularly hard despite receiving direct government loans, equity financing and cash injections.
Over $30bn has been pledged for air transport and tourism in Africa by International finance agencies and other institutions including the African Development Bank, African Export Import Bank, African Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Grounded Ethiopian Airlines planes are seen in the airfield at the Bole International Airport amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia April 7, 2020. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri
02. Music star Akon heaps praise on Ugandan tourism, looks forward to investing in Uganda
World famous US hip-hop artist Aliaume Damala Badara Thiam alias Akon has thrown praise on Uganda’s tourism and said his view about Uganda has greatly changed after visiting and seeing different parts of the country.
Akon who was on a four-day courtesy visit to Uganda arrived in the country on good Friday and directly headed to Rwakitura in the country side to meet with the president of Uganda YK Museveni before going ahead to visit several parts of the country, starting with Queen Elizabeth National Park.
During the meeting, the president applauded the Senior Presidential Advisor on Diaspora Amb. Abbey Walusimbi for inviting Akon to Uganda and implored his office to encourage more historical African Diasporas to return and take up different investments that could be available.
Akon and his wife during a courtesy visit to the Ugandan first family
03. UTB starts with Assessors Countrywide grading and classification exercise for Tourism amenities
To comply in line with the latest new East African Community (EAC) standards on hotels among other tourism facilities in Uganda, the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) on Tuesday this week started off with a refresher training course lasting two days for the 12 EAC-certified hotel assessors at Protea Hotel, Entebbe.
Unlike the previous exercises, this year’s sensitive implementation that commences in May 2021, aims at improving skills for all Tourism facility practitioners especially in the presence of Covid – 19 and how they can operate effectively given the new East African Community guidelines as also during the course the board will embark on enormous stakeholder sensitization exercise.
Every year, Uganda Tourism Board takes on the grading and classification procedures especially for the private sector in the Accommodation business at different levels of service offering.
UTB CEO, Lilly Ajarova
04. Ethiopian Cargo Boeing 737 fortuitously lands at wrong Airport in Zambia
It isn’t often a plane heads to or lands at the wrong airport. But on Sunday, April 4, Ethiopian Airlines won the daily double. Two Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800s both headed to the same under construction airport in Africa. One of the Boeings, a cargo plane, landed. The other, a passenger flight, came within 50 feet of doing so.
According to a report in One Mile At A Time, the first Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 was operating a cargo flight. It landed at the wrong airport in Ndola, Zambia, on Sunday. The aircraft in question was ET-AYL.
05. Red list: Kenya Airways temporarily halts UK flights
Kenya’s national flagship carrier has called off flights to the United Kingdom after Kenya was added to the “red list” of countries, excluding most travelers from flying and requiring a hotel quarantine. The airline plans to fly extra services for the next three days in anticipation of high traffic due to the ban.
Kenya Airways will stop all passenger flights to and from the UK from the 9th of April onwards. The date coincides with when the UK will add Kenya to its “red list” of countries from which travel is highly restricted.
However, the decision to ban flights, rather than lower frequencies, came after the Kenyan government stepped in. Kenya retaliated to the UK’s travel ban by cutting all flights to the country and adding new restrictions for travelers from the UK.
06. Turkish Airlines strengthens Cologne/Bonn location with more flights in the summer months
Starting in June, Turkish Airlines will expand its flights on offer from Cologne/Bonn and add new destinations in Turkey. Turkish Airlines has exciting destinations in store for all travellers to Turkey next summer: the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara or inland.
There will be regular flights to the popular holiday destinations of Antalya (daily) and Izmir (four times a week); Turkish Airlines will also fly once a week to Samsun on the Black Sea. There will be a weekly flight from Cologne/Bonn to the inland cities of Elazig, Ganziantep, Kayseri and Konya. And if you want to visit Istanbul, Turkey’s most populous city and centre of culture, commerce, finance and media, Turkish Airlines offers four flights a day: there will be two daily flights to Istanbul (IST) and Istanbul-Sabiha Gökcen (SAW).
The team kickstarted the trip setting off from Imperial Royale Hotel parking in Nakasero, Kampala to South Western Uganda, making stopovers at the Uganda Equator in Kayabwe for photoshoots and insights on how the Equator operates.
The entourage thereafter hit road and next stop was the Igongo Cultural Centre for a sumptuous lunch break and Museum tour where they were enriched with the diverse and rich traditional history of the region including; culture, food, dressing, music, housing among more before their next stop in Kabale, Western Uganda for beautiful evening views of the Kigezi region-based district.
After traveling all long throughout the day, check in was at Nkuringo Bwindi Safari Lodge where the team caught up a night before taking on an adventurous Gorilla tracking activity on Friday early morning at Bwindi National Park. Divided into two groups of staff; the Nkuringo group and Christmas group, next was trekking through the tinny rocky walkways of the thick forest covering approximately 7 Kilometres to and from for the Christmas group while the Nkuringo group covered tentatively 10 kilometres to and fro lasting about 3-5 hours so as to locate the actual site the endangered species family was camping at to get a glimpse of the World’s adorned primate and later received certificates for completing the activity on Day 2.
08. Airlines petition countries to start accepting Rapid Antigen tests
Currently, most countries require travellers to take a PCR test before travelling. But airlines believe the lack of uniformity in the current system leaves passengers confused and is dampening what little air travel demand there is.
The OXERA-Edge Health report, commissioned by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), found that antigen tests are “accurate, convenient and cost-efficient”.
The best antigen tests provide broadly comparable results to PCR tests in accurately identifying infected travellers, the report said. The BinaxNOW antigen test, for example, misses just one positive case in 1,000 travellers (based on an infection rate of 1 percent among travellers). And it has similarly comparable performance to PCR tests in levels of false negatives.
09. Decade Of Growth: Embraer Aircraft have turned instrumental for Kenya Airways
Kenya Airways has an important role in Africa and could be a strong player with the removal of debt, recapitalization, and a sensible plan for the future. However, it slipped from the fifth-largest to seventh-largest carrier operating to, from, and within Africa, as airlines like Emirates have overtaken its position.
Kenya Airways is in the same boat as many other government-owned airlines. It struggles to turn a profit, and has become saddled with large amounts of debt. Right now, the airline is at a turning point, where it must set out a plan for the future and target its space in both Africa and the international market.
Back in 2011, Kenya Airways ended the year with almost 7.7 million seats. This number rose by only 455,000 in the following eight years, to the end of 2019. Its dominance to, from, and within Africa dropped from fifth place to seventh, analyzing OAG data reveals, with Emirates becoming a larger player.
10. Akon completes Uganda trip on a high gear as UTB tourism investment pitches to diaspora
Uganda Tourism Board, the Government of Uganda’s tourism marketing and regulatory agency over throughout last week held talks with Senegalese American musician and businessman, Akon on all matters tourism investment.
Akon, whose real names are Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam was in the country at the invitation of by Ambassador Abbey Walusimbi, the Senior Presidential Advisor on Diaspora Affairs to explore various investment opportunities in the country.
During his stay, UTB CEO, Lilly Ajarova hosted Akon and his wife Rozina Negusei for a familiarization trip to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park.
About Guide2Uganda
Guide2Uganda (www.guide2uganda.ug) is the most comprehensive source of travel information about Uganda that exists on the web, with more content on its cities & towns, accommodation, attractions, events, museums and galleries than any other online guide that currently exists for Uganda; as well as being a dynamic travel news and events driven site with fresh content added daily.
According to WeFollow & Peer Index (that measure online influence), we are among the most influential online media organizations in Uganda. Guide2Uganda was also awarded ‘’Best Destination Website in Uganda’’ by Jumia Travel Uganda in the 2018 Africa Travel Awards.
Share your travel stories & photos with the world via email: info@guide2uganda.ug
