- This development brings to an end the protracted 5-phased certification process that saw the carrier’s pair of A330s grounded in Entebbe.
- The airline now can switch between the CRJ-900 and the higher capacity A330 on services, depending on passenger and cargo demand.
- A330s will be used on services to London, Dubai, Mumbai, and Guangzhou once Uganda gets off the COVID-19 red list.
The Acting Director General of UCAA, Fred Bamwesigye, applauded the team upon the successful completion of the process of adding the Airbus to the Mitsubishi CRJ 900 on the AOC during the handover ceremony held in Entebbe.
The last phase of the 5-stage certification process followed a flight from Entebbe, Uganda, to Johannesburg, South Africa, when senior training captain Francis Barros and senior training captain Pete Thomase landed the Airbus #A330-800 series Neo on August 12, 2021, at OR Tambo International Airport.
The development brings to an end the protracted 5-phased certification process that saw the carrier’s pair of A330s grounded in Entebbe, pending the AOC since the airline completed the national carrier’s order of the second of 2 A330s in February from manufacturer Airbus pending the AOC.
It now gives the airline the flexibility to switch between the CRJ-900 and the higher capacity A330 on services, depending on passenger and cargo demand.
According to Uganda Airlines Acting CEO, Jennifer Bamuturaki, the A330s will be used on services to London, Dubai, Mumbai, and Guangzhou once Uganda gets off the COVID-19 red list in destination countries. The continuing restrictions on travel from Uganda have seen the planned service to Dubai slip by a month to October, while that to London has now been moved to early 2022.
London, Mumbai, and Guangzhou are among the top unserved point-to-point routes from Entebbe according to statistics from 2019. The Entebbe-London route had 84,000 round-trip passengers during the year, followed by Mumbai at 42,000 and Guangzhou at 29,000. That would represent a daily load of 230 passengers between Entebbe and London – 115 to Mumbai and 79 to Guangzhou.
In Uganda, from January 3, 2020, to today, August 24, 2021, there have been 118,673 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 2,960 deaths, reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). As of August 23, 2021, a total of 1,163,451 vaccine doses have been administered.
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