‘Air Uganda' settles for older aircraft

By Wolfgang H. Thome/etn
To be or not to be Uganda’s national carrier.
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development- sponsored airline project in Uganda now had to concede that their start up aircraft of choice – or necessity – will be two old DC9s, reportedly leased from a South African firm.

The Uganda airline was due to start in mid 2007 with modern CRJ aircraft but ditched the strategy, eventually opting for the introduction of MD aircraft, which the company operates in Italy.

MD aircraft are younger than the DC9 but nevertheless also an aging aircraft type in comparison to the 737NGs and the single aisle Airbus types. When the MD87s, however, were also not available as planned, the airline had to settle for the even older DC9.

The initially contracted CRJs have, in the meantime, joined the Jetlink fleet in Kenya and are operating perfectly well and to the full satisfaction of their new owners.
Jetlink is also understood to have secured maintenance services for these CRJ aircraft.

According to a report by the EastAfrican, the airline is due to commence operations on November 10 this year and will trade as Air Uganda - a name recently acquired by from a long dormant domestic airline in Uganda.

With memories of the failed Victoria International Airlines still fresh in every one's mind, the travel fraternity has adopted a wait and see attitude. Some travel agents in fact expressed their disappointment that the new airline is starting with very old aircraft, and as one leading travel agent puts it, "Surely we could expect better from them."

A retired airline country manager said, "Maybe they are trying to control the risk and see how things will go before investing in modern aircraft, but then it will be hard for them to compete with outdated aircraft against the modern fleets of Precision Air, Kenya Airways and the new Airbus aircraft Air Tanzania is getting now."

The EastAfrican report also mentioned that the DC9s will be operated on a wet lease and this, if correct, may cause regulatory concerns over the issue of an Air Operator's Certificate, as the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had previously taken the stand that aircraft have to be registered in Uganda and be under Ugandan CAA oversight and company operational control, something a wet lease does not necessarily assure.

Clarification in this regard is expected from the CAA in due course.

August 31, 2007   Posted in: Africa