Uganda Airlines Cuts Number of Dubai Flights

KAMPALA, UGANDA: National Flight Carrier, Uganda Airlines has reduced the number of flights from Entebbe Airport to the United Arab Emirates from four to three a week, due to ongoing renovations at the Dubai International Airport (DXB).

This was revealed by the Airline’s head of public relations, Ms. Shakira Rahim who noted that effective Tuesday, May 10, 2022, flights from Entebbe to Dubai DXB (terminal 1) will maintain a regular schedule of Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday, while return flights from Dubai will be for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for the next 45 days until June 21, 2022.

“We don’t have control over this, because of the ongoing renovation work in Dubai. However, we were given chance to either land at Sharjah or Dubai World Central (DWC), both of which are far, considering our biggest clientele are traders, who normally have heavy cargo,” she said.

Shakirah noted that the airport’s northern runway in Dubai is undergoing a comprehensive upgrade designed in order to boost safety, service delivery, and capacity levels for passengers.

She said moving to DWC or Sharjah would be too expensive for the traders and the airline, considering it (the airline) would have to reconfigure its systems to match the new place of operation.

Traders and other travellers with heavy cargo would also have to incur huge costs in moving their property to Sharjah and DWC, located more than 45km from Dubai International Airport.

Rahim said in opting to keep its schedule at DXB, the airline was given only three slots, meaning they had to cut one flight, until June 22 when normal operations resume.

In a statement released in March, Paul Griffiths, the chief executive officer of Dubai Airports, said while regular runway maintenance is scheduled on a weekly basis, more extensive upgrades require a complete closure of the runway.

He said the runway rehabilitation project will involve the placement of approximately 160,000 tonnes of asphalt and 30,000m3 of concrete to strengthen and resurface the runway and the adjacent taxiways.

In October 2021, the airline launched its first intercontinental flight to Dubai, one of its most lucrative routes, using the new Airbus state-of-the-art aircraft.

However, two months later, the national carrier was barred from carrying passengers to Dubai, as part of official UAE policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. On January 10, 2022, passengers were allowed to travel to Dubai again.

According to the Uganda Export Promotion Board 2021 statistics, Uganda exports mainly precious minerals, high-value crops and labour to the United Arab Emirates, estimated at $1.85b, in addition to remittances estimated at $200m. Imports from the UAE on the other hand stand at $712.7m.