Air, UGANDA - Air Uganda has entered into partnership with Belgian Airline, SN Brussels to fly its passengers to European destinations. So as to increase service delivery to tourists all over East Africa, Under the agreement Air Uganda will also fly all SN Brussels airlines passengers some of which are tourists who are traveling to Zanzibar, Entebbe and Juba in south Sudan. Air Uganda is also in talks with the Qatar airlines, to transport Air Uganda passengers to the Middle East while Air Uganda takes Qatar passengers to its regional destinations of Zanzibar, Entebbe and Juba. as this will promote easy movements of tourists .Negotiations are also underway with an undisclosed regional airline to fly Air Uganda passengers through linked flights from Entebbe direct to Khartoum with a stopover in Juba. When negotiations are finalized, Air Uganda hopes to issue single tickets from either Entebbe or Khartoum that will be honored from Juba for onward connection, thus eliminating the need for different tickets for connected flights.
Speaking at the company’s headquarters in Kampala recently, the airline’s chief executive officer, Peter de Waal said as part of the company’s first anniversary celebrations of operations in Uganda, it was taking into consideration the provision of quality products to exploit the potential that exists in the region, alongside the need to provide a Ugandan carrier for the region.
Air Uganda begun operations on November 14th 2007. Last week they announced a new partner for the Juba-Khartoum Route. Plans are also underway to take the carrier to the Rwanda skies for a more complete coverage of the East African skies, de Waal said. Since inception Air Uganda has flown over 70,000 passengers, introduced and begun operations on new routes, signed landmark agreements with Kenya airways and will soon launch its cargo service, which will be available on all routes that the airline has operations.
The airline’s pay load has also increased by over 50% on some routes while other routes have not registered as high increments as yet. Jennifer Musiime, Air Uganda’s sales and marketing manager, said the Juba route has in the last three months increased from 50% to 70% while the Zanzibar route has increased from 10% to over 50%.
The walk to the one year mark has not been an easy one, at the near completion of Air Uganda’s first year of operations was when Wall Street tumbled and a majority of airlines were affected.
IATA the airlines industry regulator predicated that airline worldwide would suffer a $20 million loss to which the East African region is no exception.
Somewhere in the second quarter of the airline’s operations is when the prices of fuel became unpredictable plus the hostile aviation industry that Air Uganda joined. The Uganda aviation industry is so hostile that sometime the mortality rate is reduced to just six months as was the case with Victoria International Airline.
Musiime also said the airline had over the past few months been in negotiations with several stake holders in the regions’ aviation industry so as to make the airline a regional carrier, despite the troubles that are involved while joining a near market monopoly. Among the new Air Uganda partners are Kenya Airways that has for long been player on the Entebbe-Nairobi route SN Brussels and soon Qatar Ai
