New Dawn? Bombardier planes touch down to signal revival of Uganda Airlines

The first two of the four Uganda Airlines Bombardier CRJ900s aircrafts have today, Tuesday morning touched down at Entebbe Airport.

The aircrafts – 5XKOB and 5XEQU – have been received by President Museveni and First Lady Janet Museveni. They are the first in the series to have the new airspace cabin enhancements which is expected to ‘bring a range of benefits to Uganda Airlines and its customers’.

Uganda Airlines will be the first airline in Africa to operate them.

Next year, Uganda Airlines will receive two Airbus A330-800neo jetliners.

Engineer Ndawula Kaweesi, Chairman Board of Directors, CAA has also expressed his happiness at the arrival of the first jet and said  “We are going to have a flying billboard, flying all over telling everyone that there is Uganda,” said Kaweesi.

Over Shs280bn has been paid for the two Bombardier planes.

However, as Ministers, heads of government agencies, Members Parliament, Civil Aviation Authority officials and other dignitaries gathered to welcome the new dream of Uganda Airline at the old Entebbe airport, Captain Francis Babu, an Aviation expert was of castigating the government for spending huge sums of money to start a new airline.

“The Uganda government is not revamping an airline but starting a new airline,” he told Morning at NTV.

“As a reasonable businessman, I would not have invested in an asset, I should have started a business using wet leased airplanes and eventually bought the aeroplanes,” he added.

The new aircrafts will not start commercial operations immediately since they need about 90 days to complete the Air Operator Certification (AOC certification) process.

During this 90 day certification process, Bombardier will be showcasing the CRJ900 new cabin to other countries across Africa as a marketing strategy. Currently Uganda has signed forty seven (47) Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASAs) with other countries which will need to be activated.

More updates to follow