ENTEBBE AIRPORT, UGANDA: Uganda Airlines has obtained rights to commence flights to Heathrow Airport in London, UK and Dubai, the Daily Express has learnt.
The direct flights to London are expected to start on March 28.
According to reports seen by this publication, the Ugandan national carrier will operate five flights per week to Heathrow using Airbus A330-800s.
The flights will arrive at 6:45am before departing at 9:00 am.
Aviation Development Chief Analyst, James Pearson said over 84,000 passengers flew on Entebbe-London flight on a two-way point-to-point basis in 2019, “making Entebbe the second largest unserved market from Africa to London.”
He said the route was marginally behind Harare while Dar Ed Salaam with it’s new airport had a strong 51,000.
Uganda Airlines last week held it’s second Annual General Meeting in Kampala where the national carrier’s Board of Directors presented the Annual Report for the period ended 30th June, 2020 to the shareholders – Ministries of Finance and Works.
Shareholders said they were “satisfied with successes registered and reaffirmed commitment to achieving objectives for which the airline was established” including tourism promotion; stimulating economic growth, employment creation, promotion of exports, and marketing Uganda abroad.
“The shareholders look forward to the continued growth of UgandaAirlines passenger and cargo portfolio with the start of long haul flights to Dubai, London, Guangzhou and Mumbai, upon conclusion of the ongoing A330neo operations certification process; and further expansion of the African network to include Johannesburg, Lusaka, Harare, Khartoum, Addis Ababa, Lagos, Accra, Goma, Lubumbashi and more; as well as interline and codeshare partnerships for seamless global operations,” said the Airline.
On February 26, Rolls-Royce signed a TotalCare agreement with Uganda Airlines for its two new A330neo aircraft powered exclusively by Trent 7000 engines.
The airline received its first A330neo in December 2020 and second in January 2021.
With the agreement, Rolls-Royce will be responsible for managing Uganda Airlines’ A330neo Trent 7000 engines’ maintenance.
The airline will be charged on a dollar-per-flying-hour payment mechanism.
It will keep the engines on the wings and in service, as well as minimise operational disruptions by enhancing aircraft availability.
The Trent 7000, which first entered service in November 2018, draws on more than 50 million flying hours of experience from the Trent 700.
The 68-72,000lb thrust Trent 7000 helps the A330neo reduce environmental impact with a 25 percent improvement in fuel burn per seat and a significant noise reduction.
Cornwell Muleya, CEO of Uganda Airlines, said, “We are proud to include our new Rolls-Royce powered Airbus A330neos into our fleet and this agreement will ensure that our Trent 7000 engines will be maintained to world-leading levels of service.”
A Chinese top foreign policy official last week promised to “speed up consideration of Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) to pave way for Uganda Airlines flights to Chinese cities.”
BASA provides for civil aviation certifications to be shared between two countries.
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