Govt Pushes Uganda Airlines’ First Flight by 3 Months

Government has now pushed the timeline for the first flight for the soon to be revived national carrier, Uganda Airlines from December this year to March 2019.

This is according to State Minister for Finance, David Bahati who was Tuesday briefing journalists at Uganda Media Centre on the outcomes of a Cabinet meeting that sat on Monday this week.

“We did discuss the Uganda Airlines and finally agreed to move forward. We have agreed to work out a program and we hope that by March, April 2019, we will be able to have out first flight launched for the Uganda Airlines,” Minister Bahati said.

He said that issues to do with financing, technical aspects, pay back period for loan financing and the break even period were also concluded in the meeting.

The Cabinet timeline for March next year is however a three months delay compared to the timeline earlier announced by the Minister for Works and Transport, Eng Monica Ntege Azuba in May this year and reaffirmed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, Bageya Waiswa on Wednesday last week, of having the initial flights (regional) by December this year.

Read More: Uganda Airlines: Govt to Procure 4 Bombardier Planes by December, Shs 4.4Bn Paid Upfront

In May, the Works and Transport Minister said that the first four aeroplanes (Bombardier CRJ900 regional jet liners of 80 to 100 passenger sitting capacity) would be purchased by the end of this year and would be the first to take to the skies, majorly ply regional routes within the East African Community.

In total, government plans to acquire six aircrafts, four mid range Bombardiers and two Airbus A330 wide-body-twin-engine jet airliners. Mr Waiswa Bageya said that engagements have already commenced between government and both manufacturers (Bombardier and Airbus).

Uganda has already paid an upfront sum of USD 1.2 million (Shs 4.4bn) in commitment fees for the six aircrafts.

Last week, Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija revealed that USD 340 million (Shs 1.3 trillion) is required by government for the purchase of the planes. He said that government was in talks with potential financiers but could not reveal details.

Read More: Uganda Airlines: Govt in Talks With Financiers for Shs 1.3 Trillion Needed for Planes

Yesterday, Minister Bahati while responding to a question on the source of financing for the aircrafts said that it was likely to be sourced from the different Exim Banks.

“We have already budgeted for Shs 129 billion in our own budget to kick start the process for this financial year. The rest, we are looking to get a financing line,” Bahati said.

“We are looking at different possibilities including the Exim Banks of different countries to make sure we get the necessary resources,” he added.

Justifying the reason for the extension of the first flight from December to March 2019, Bahati said government was being cautious as well as finishing complex technicalities.

“We had to finish a number of technical evaluation clarifications. Cabinet members had a few questions on the aircraft types and to be sure on what we are engaging in,” he said adding “we want to be sure that we are doing it the rights way, getting the right assets through the right procedure”.