AIR UGANDA INCREASES FLIGHTS TO KEY DESTINATIONS ACROSS EASTERN AFRICA
(Posted 29th March 2014)
Air Uganda has yesterday announced the increase in flights to a number of their East African destinations effective 14th of April. New is that Mombasa will now be served five times a week directly up from previously four flights a week, cutting out the previous en-route stop at Kilimanjaro. This will be of keen interest to the Ugandan business community which imports over 90 percent of all cargo via the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa while visitors wanting to enjoy the Kenyan beaches now have more options to fly to the coast where this year spectacular deals are available for residents of the East African Community.
Kilimanjaro will be for now be served three times a week, likely to go to four soon in a joint code share operation with Tanzania’s Precision Air while under a similar deal Dar es Salaam will be served twice a day compared to the previous one flight a day, allowing day trips from Uganda to Dar without the need of an overnight stay and a special fare to generate more traffic for the new double daily service was launched at US Dollars 165 return PLUS taxes and fees.
Precision Air will no longer operate flights from the two airports to Entebbe under their own banner but use the Air Uganda flights under a commercial / code share agreement which is thought to be beneficial to both airlines while giving passengers new options.
The most recently launched destination of Mogadishu / Somalia will also see the number of weekly flights go up from three to four a week, a sign of continued strong demand on the route.
Juba will see double daily flights continue except on Wednesdays and Fridays, when three daily flights connect Entebbe with South Sudan’s capital city.
Nairobi flights will remain, for the time being, on the same level with three flights a day except for Saturday when only two flights are operated.
Bujumbura flights will also be upped from the present four to five a week and have been changed to nonstop flights both ways.
Kigali in the meantime will, for the time being at least, be served by RwandAir operating a flight codeshared with Air Uganda, which allowed U7 to free aircraft capacity needed to increase flights elsewhere.
Air Uganda currently operates a uniform fleet of Bombardier CRJ200 jets in a single class economy configuration of 50 seats each. Word from the grapevine however has it that a fleet increase and aircraft type change may be on the way with speculation rife if Uganda’s quasi national airline may upgrade from the CRJ200 to the larger CRJ700NextGen or even the CRJ900NextGen, which would allow them to bring their acclaimed business class of the MD 87 days back.
Such a move, if confirmed, would also very likely take the wind out of the sails of self-serving lobbyists trying to revive the defunct Uganda Airlines as a scheme to tap into public coffers, which in any case should no longer be an issue as President Museveni and His Highness the Aga Khan a few months ago agreed that the Ugandan government would invest in Air Uganda. Principal shareholder of Air Uganda, until now, is the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, in short AKFED, which has over the years carried the burden of having Uganda’s colours flown across the region.
For more details about the airline, special offers, the latest schedule, their frequent flyer programme and more click on www.air-uganda.com. As always, for breaking and regular news from the aviation industry in Eastern Africa, look no further but watch this space.
