Independent magazine Uganda
Tuesday April 26, 2022
Uganda Airlines made about Sh7.6 billion in the first three
months of the year. The money was collected from ten chartered flights.
Six flights were paid for by mainly private clients to
Mogadishu, Somalia while three were hired for the First Son Gen Muhoozi
Kainerugaba and the late former Speaker Jacob Oulanyah.
Nine of the flights were operated by the airline's CRJ900
aircraft while the one to Seattle was by one of the two Airbus A330-800 Neo
aircraft.
According to sources at the airline, State House and the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, paid a total of about 964 million, for Gen
Muhoozi's three trips. Gen Muhoozi, who is the Commander of the Land Forces of
the Uganda People's Defence Force-UPDF flew twice to Kigali, Rwanda, and once
to Cairo, Egypt.
Gen Muhoozi's trips to Kigali were seen as part of Uganda's
efforts to mend its relations with Rwanda which had resulted in the closure of
the Gatuna border for three years.
In February, Parliament paid the airline 500,000 US Dollars,
about shillings 1.7 billion, to fly the late Oulanyah to the USA for medical
treatment.
Bamuturaki says the airline is making money from among
others operating chartered flights.
She however declined to reveal how many chartered flights
have been operated since the airline's revival in August 2019 citing
competition. She however disclosed that the airline rented out one of its
airbuses at about 420 Million Shillings to its manufacturer for exhibition at
the Dubai Expo.
The airline has operated chartered flights for athletes. In
2020 President Yoweri Museveni paid about 81.4 million shillings, to fly Joshua
Cheptegei, the 10,000-meter World Champion and, Halima Nakaayi, Steven Kisa,
and Winnie Nanyondo to Nairobi. The athletes then connected to Monaco for the
Diamond League in August.
Bamuturaki said the airline's focus in 2022 will be on
investment in customer retention systems such as launching a Frequent Flier
Program and special offers such as extra baggage for free, seeking strategic
partnerships, growing its cargo network, and network expansion.
Bamuturaki added that the airline plans to acquire
facilities such as customs bonded warehouses and cold rooms.
In the financial year, 2021/2022 the airline was allocated
117.6 Billion Shillings out of the 195 billion requested. The budget shortfall
means that the airline can only buy a spare engine for the four CRJ900 aircraft
and start self-handling after July because it needs shillings 47 billion to
among others buy equipment.
The government allocated 97.6 Billion Shillings for the
airline's operations, capitalization, and settlement of bills to Uganda Civil
Aviation Authority and shillings 20 billion for wages of the over 390 staff.
The ministerial policy statement for the 2022/2023 financial
year shows that the airline will receive less than 80 Billion Shillings.