EMIRATES REACTS TO ADDED COMPETITION, DROPS ADDIS STOP ON ENTEBBE ROUTE
Starting from the 25th of March 2012 will Emirates drop their stop enroute to and from Entebbe in Addis Ababa, giving Ugandans the long awaited nonstop connection. Passengers to and from Uganda had often complained that the stop was wasting their time but it is only now, that Qatar Airways and Gulf Air have brought a new wave of competition into the Ugandan market, that the airline is seemingly responding to these observations and demands.
While Qatar Airways is now flying daily between Doha and Entebbe, this flight will in fact in the last week of March be extended to Kigali, after all traffic rights have been secured, while Gulf Air, which commenced flights between Bahrain and Entebbe, currently flies 4 times a week using an A 319 on the route.
The added competition has eaten into the flight occupancies and even to some extent the cargo loads of the airlines which have in the past been flying to Uganda and as a result did some serious strategizing set in to find ways and means to keep market share by creating competitive advantages, not just over the fares but also with a compatible product, i.e. nonstop flights.
There is now speculation that Emirates may move from the often used B777 to the smaller A340 to cater for the Entebbe only loads and it is equally not known at this moment in time if Emirates will from the 25th of March combine Addis with another destination or else equally begin nonstop flights between Dubai and Ethiopia.
Watch this space.
