Uganda Airline has Monday launched the Dubai route, its first commercial flight outside Africa.
This comes two months after the airline’s two A330-800Neo Airbuses acquired the Air Operators Certificate (AOC) from Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) having proven that they have systems in place to facilitate operation of this particular aircraft.
The air operator certificate is the approval granted by UCAA to an aircraft operator to allow the use of an aircraft type for commercial purposes.
In Dubai, Uganda Airlines will have a frequency of three times a week. The Airbus A330-800neo which will make the long haul flights has a seater capacity of 210 seats (economy), 28 seats (premium economy) and 20 seats (business).
The airline hopes to leverage Dubai’s strategic significance as a transit point to Europe, the Far West and Far East.
Dubai international airport (DXB) was the number one hub for international passengers in 2019, with an annual traffic of 86.4 million passengers.
As a result of the Covid pandemic, DXB saw passenger numbers of 5.75 million in the first three months of 2021, a sharp drop of 67.8 per cent from the first quarter of 2020.
Uganda Airlines’ Dubai flights had initially been scheduled to launch on July 16 but this was delayed by the suspension of flights by UAE from Uganda to combat the spread of coronavirus disease. Uganda and other countries like Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Vietnam and Zambia were placed under the red list by UAE.
However, as of today, passengers arriving from these countries are allowed in UAE provided they follow specific protocols including a valid negative COVID-19 PCR test certificate with a QR code for a test conducted within 48 hours.
Validity should be calculated from the time the sample was collected prior to departure from an approved health facility. A rapid PCR test report with a QR code for a test conducted at the departure airport within six hours of departure is also required.
Passengers arriving in Dubai from Uganda will be required to take another COVID-19 PCR test on arrival at Dubai International airport:
Uganda Airlines’ acting chief executive, Jenifer Bamuturaki, recently revealed that on the Dubai route, the airline is targeting migrant workers who travel to the Middle East as well as business people among others. Between 200 and 300 migrant workers, leave the country daily for work in Saudi Arabia, Oman and other gulf countries.
The airline has already secured an interline traffic agreement with Emirates for extensions on the Dubai route as well as other points in the Middle East and Asia. It is also engaging other players like Qatar and KLM in a bid to sign similar agreements.
After Dubai, Uganda Airlines will also launch other regional and international routes such as Mumbai, Guangzhou, Lagos, and Kisangani by 2023. However, ahead of the launch, she says the airline is engaging airlines such as Emirates, Qatar and KLM to sign interline traffic agreements.
While speaking at the Dubai expo 2020 over the weekend, President Yoweri Museveni made a case for Uganda as a destination for business, wooing investors in UAE to pick Uganda for investment. He said Uganda presents a big market for finished goods.
At the moment, Uganda Airlines serves 10 regional cross-border routes including Bujumbura in Burundi; Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar in Tanzania; Johannesburg O.R Tambo in South Africa; Kinshasa in the DRC, Mogadishu in Somalia; and Mombasa, Nairobi and Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya.
