KAMPALA AERO CLUB GETS THEIR AOC RESTORED – AFTER FIVE LONG MONTHS
(Posted 19th November 2014)
It is a resounding thumbs up for the sustained effort by the Kampala Aero Club and Flight Training Centre and an equally resounding thumbs down for the hapless regulators still occupying their posh suites in their glass and marble tower at Entebbe International Airport, when news broke yesterday afternoon that www.flyuganda.com had completed the hurdle riddled slalom of being recertified and given their AOC back.
The Kampala Aero Club is the first of the remaining companies still in business among the Ugandan aviation fraternity, after first Asante Aviation and then Air Uganda bowed out of the race, the latter after completing four of the five stages of re-certification before throwing in the towel after their entire route network was given away by the same UCAA staff who were responsible for pulling their AOC in the first place exactly five months ago.
‘In a civilized regulatory environment, and regional regulators have privately agreed to this, would the UCAA have given temporary AOC’s until the process of re-certification under new rules was completed. However, they chose to cover their a**** to avoid being cited by ICAO and no amount of misleading the public by their mouthpieces can make that fact go away. I admire the Aero Club boys to have spent all that money and effort to be recertified when they had not broken one rule, had not one safety infringement and were plain and simple victims of a regulatory regime gone bonkers and rogue. These guys in Entebbe should be ashamed, but the problem is they have and know no shame at all. They still parade around like peacocks while the entire community of aviators waits for them to be sacked or prosecuted for the bad they did or sued for millions of dollars from their private pockets. This saga must have been the worst in aviation history ever and knowing their yap yaps I already now tell them to shut up and be quiet’ ranted a regular source who worked in the aviation industry before being laid off as a result of the unprecedented action by the UCAA on the 17th of June.
KAFTC issued the following media release yesterday afternoon, between the lines also leaving not one shred of doubt whom they hold responsible, and hopefully liable in court now that their ordeal at last is over:
Start quote:
AIR OPERATOR CERTIFICATE RE-CERTIFICATION
DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
KAMPALA AEROCLUB AND FLIGHT TRAINING CENTRE (KAFTC) / FLY UGANDA
KAFTC/Fly Uganda are pleased to announce that our Air Operator Certificate UG/CAA/AOC/033 has been reissued to include both Domestic and International Operations again.
KAFTC/Fly Uganda are the first company to complete the UCAA recertification process following the withdrawal or amending of all Uganda Operator Certificates to restrict all Uganda Operators either completely, or to Domestic Operations only, whilst the recertification process was completed.
In order to remain within the restrictions imposed by the Uganda Authority in June 2014 on all Uganda Operators, KAFTC/Fly Uganda immediately ceased all regional and international operations with their fleet of aircraft.
With that restriction now lifted, and the new certificate issued, we are once again able to offer full aviation services to all our clients in Uganda, the region and internationally.
KAFTC/Fly Uganda apologises to all our clients for the inconvenience and additional expense that was the result of the UCAA decision in June 2014. We thank them for their patience whilst the UCAA recertification process was underway.
Jeremy McKelvie – Accountable Manager
There has been no word as yet about other companies which suffered the same fate at the hand of the regulators who perceive themselves as jury, prosecutor, judge and executioner without any right of appeal and another source late yesterday said: ‘If they think it will be business as usual they are very mistaken. We will be civil, of course, but they should not one moment think this will ever be forgotten or forgiven. To cover up their own failures they put the entire aviation industry out of international and regional business for nearly half a year. The responsible individuals are known and if heaven would strike them down tonight it would not be a moment too soon’.
Harsh words but entirely understandable of course, given the losses inflicted on the sector by a bunch of bureaucrats who mistakenly think that preventing aviation is their core business instead of promoting aviation. Bouquets to KAFTC for their remarkable effort and success and mega barbs for those at the UCAA responsible for this lamentable situation.
