Currently, Uganda Airlines operates a fleet consisting of two Airbus A330-800Ns and four Bombardier CRJ-900LRs. The Airbus aircraft are used for long-haul international routes, while the Bombardier aircraft serve regional and shorter routes.

Recently, Uganda Airlines introduced an Airbus A320-200 under a short-term wet lease agreement with Lithuanian-based DAT. However, maintenance costs currently account for 20% of the company’s budget.

Establishing a hangar will reduce the government’s expenditure on sending aircraft abroad for maintenance. According to sources, the airline will need at least $50 million (UGX 183 billion) to establish a fully equipped and up-to-standard aircraft hangar.

According to Adedayo Olawuyi, chief commercial officer of Uganda National Airlines Company Limited, the aircraft hangar is part of the airline’s 10-year strategic plan, set to launch later this year.

“We have been engaging with the Ugandan Civil Aviation Authority. We are looking to acquire land from them to build our own hangar, enabling us to conduct in-house maintenance,” Olawuyi stated.

Last year, the airline received approval from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to become an Approved Maintenance Organization (AMO) and has since enrolled engineers to conduct maintenance up to line checks at Entebbe Airport. However, major maintenance checks are still conducted at approved AMOs abroad.

“We hope to develop the expertise and capabilities to conduct heavy maintenance checks in Entebbe in the future. This will help us save significant foreign exchange currently spent on outsourcing maintenance services,” Olawuyi said.

Uganda Airlines recently launched a direct flight to London Gatwick, its third international route outside Africa, following Mumbai and Dubai. The airline now flies to 17 destinations, including Abuja, Lusaka, Harare, Nairobi, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Bujumbura, Johannesburg, Dubai, Zanzibar, Lagos, Kinshasa, Mumbai, Mogadishu, Juba, and Kilimanjaro.

As part of its expansion strategy, Uganda Airlines also plans to establish its own hotel to cater to connecting passengers.

“There are instances where passengers have long layovers of up to 10 hours in Entebbe. Providing them with hotel accommodation enhances their experience and promotes tourism,” Olawuyi said.

Currently, the airline incurs substantial costs providing hotel accommodation for passengers and crew. Establishing its own hotel will significantly reduce these expenses. Several successful airlines, such as Ethiopian Airlines, own airport hotels, catering services, and maintenance facilities, allowing them to minimize operational costs.

Uganda Airlines aims to adopt a similar model to enhance profitability. According to its strategic plan, the company intends to acquire four mid-range aircraft, including the Airbus A320 and A321neo, as well as two Boeing Dreamliners.

Additionally, Uganda Airlines plans to acquire two cargo freighters: a narrow-body Boeing 737 and a wide-body Boeing 777 freighter. Before the end of the year, the airline plans to introduce new routes to Accra (Ghana), Jeddah and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), and Cape Town (South Africa).

By the end of the 10-year plan, Uganda Airlines aims to operate between 32 and 35 destinations.

“If we acquire the required aircraft, we plan to launch a route to Guangzhou, China. However, with our current fleet, once we start London operations, we won’t be able to add Guangzhou until we acquire a third wide-body aircraft,” Olawuyi said.

Credit: Geofrey S.

The A320-200, configured with 12 business class and 144 economy seats, will complement Uganda Airlines’ CRJ and A330 aircraft, some of which are undergoing maintenance.

Jenifer Bamuturaki, the airline’s CEO, emphasized the importance of this addition, citing its role in meeting rising demand across the network.

“We are delighted to announce this partnership with Lithuanian Airlines. With this new lease, we will increase capacity deployment to cater to growing demand on key routes,” Ms Bamuturaki said.

The airline aims to use the A320 to ease congestion on high-demand routes such as Johannesburg and Kinshasa while strengthening operations to Nairobi, Lagos, and Abuja.

Despite the positive steps, Uganda Airlines has faced criticism in the past for operating smaller aircraft on routes advertised for larger models, leading to frustrations over cramped seating and limited baggage capacity.

The airline is hopeful that the addition of the A320 will mitigate these issues by providing more spacious seating and enhanced cargo options. The timing of the lease aligns with the upcoming festive season, which typically sees a surge in both leisure and business travel.

Ms Bamuturaki emphasized the airline’s commitment to improving passenger experiences and expanding cargo services, saying, “We look forward to enhancing freighting opportunities while meeting the needs of our growing customer base.”

While the Airbus A320 is expected to alleviate operational bottlenecks temporarily, Uganda Airlines acknowledges the need for long-term solutions, including acquiring additional aircraft and optimizing route efficiency to sustain growth and customer satisfaction.

This is the second time in six months this year that the national carrier is entering a wet lease after May’s 160-seater Airbus A320 leased from Johannesburg-based Global Airways.

A wet lease in aviation is a leasing arrangement where one airline provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance (ACMI) to another airline or business entity.

The lessee pays based on hours operated, making it a comprehensive solution for airlines needing additional capacity without the responsibilities of full aircraft ownership.

The year 2024 has been busy for the five-year old flier opening up new routes both domestic and international, including Abuja, Lusaka and Harare, as well as Dubai and Mumbai.

These efforts are part of the company’s vision of increasing connectivity infrastructure as a government agency, but also comes amidst similar developments by other regional and international players, taking advantage of increasing demand.

According to the latest report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the month of September recorded the highest ever passenger demand with a growth of 7.1 percent, while demand for Africa jumped 11.9 percent from the same month of last year.

Uganda Airlines is readying itself to take a piece of this growth, according the management.

The company currently owns six aircraft comprising four CRJ900LRs and two Airbus A330-800neos. In May it added another 150-capacity A320 on a wet lease arrangement for six year.

Shakila Rahim Lamar, head of communications said after the six months period they would receive another similar aircraft from the same South African lessor on similar terms.

A “wet lease” is an agreement where the leasing company provides an aircraft with flight crew, maintenance and insurance, usually for a short period.

Adedayo Olawuyi, Chief the Commercial Officer, says that the airline is moving closer to profitability, and that in December last year, achieved 83 percent of its target revenues.

According to experts, while international routes enhance the connectivity of a country, and efficient route network is vital for younger and smaller fliers like Uganda Airlines because the regional routes feed into the international ones.

The airline flies to 16 destinations in 13 countries and near-future plans include additions of regional and international routes like Accra, Cape Town, Jeddah, London and Riyadh, according to Olawuyi.

Speaking on the sidelines of the recent Aviation Development (AviaDev) Africa conference, Olawuyi revealed plans to add another four Boeing 787 Dreamliners and four A320neos, which will bring the total fleet to 13 by 2030.

The plan also involves acquisition of a Boeing 737-800 Freighter for specifically cargo operations.

African airlines saw a 11.9 per cent jump in demand in September compared to the previous year, with capacity and the load factor also improving.

Capacity grew by 6.6 percent while the load factor rose to 76 percent from September 2023, a month that traditionally registers highest demand in a year due to international tourist travels.

Asia-Pacific airlines achieved an 18.5 percent year-on-year increase in demand, while capacity increased 17.7 percent, according to IATA.

However, there are fears that these successes are coming with challenges as the aviation industry takes steps to reduce contribution to greenhouse emissions, among other factors.

“We will soon face a capacity crunch in some regions which threatens to curtail these economic and social benefits,” says Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General on the report, adding that governments will either have to lose out “to more dynamic nations who value global connectivity, or forge a consensus for sustainable growth”.

According to him, airlines are making significant investments to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“That needs to be accompanied by an equally active political vision, backed-up by actions, to ensure we have efficient and sufficient airport and air traffic management capacity to meet the needs of citizens and businesses to travel,” he said .

Monica Rubombora, Uganda Airlines Country Manager in South Africa admits that there is a lot to do as more international players get more interested in Africa, including in Uganda.

She cites Emirates’ increasing flights to Entebbe and South Africa, and Qatar Airways establishing a hub at Kigali, Rwanda.

On profitability, Rubombora says by the end of the 10-year plan, the company should be making profit, though the main idea behind it is to be an infrastructure to support the growth of other sectors like tourism and exports.

She says the 10 year strategy involves heavy Investment in fleet and routes, and they cannot be making profit.

“We are five years now and you know this is a heavily capital-intensive type of industry. We are not yet profitable, but the growth trajectory is we should be profitable in about 10 years time,” she told South African American based TV channel, CNBC Africa.

She prided in the achievements that they have so far made including reducing trave time and halving ticket prices on the Entebbe-Nairobi route, adding that Uganda Airlines knows what to do and where to be in the greater aviation industry.

The company will also continue signing bilateral agreements with other players and Uganda seeks to open up her air space to other countries too.

The airline’s chief executive, Ms Jenifer Bamuturaki has dangled a $95 million (Shs355 billion) kitty with which she has mooted a juicy collaboration with local suppliers under the promotion initiative, Buy Uganda Build Uganda.

Speaking during the Suppliers Forum in Kampala, Bamuturaki advised suppliers to align themselves with current trends in the aviation industry such as the push for sustainability.

At the inaugural suppliers’ forum that convened stakeholders, policy makers and management of Uganda Airlines, collaboration with formalized local suppliers dominated talks with the aviation industry fronting quality products.

Bamuturaki noted that the airline has earmarked Shs355 billion to facilitate local sourcing of onboard services from beverages and other services.

“We are going to work with more than 200 local suppliers that are formalilsed, starting from beverages and other onboard services to drive Uganda’s promotion initiative of buy Uganda Build Uganda,” she said.

The limitless sky the airline is opening for local suppliers is that should their products quality snare the taste buds beyond Uganda’s skies, Uganda Airlines will open the market for them across its destinations and connections.

The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority PPDA tasked management at Uganda Airlines to strategically source local suppliers from formalized businesses while leveraging technology through electronic procurement.