(Posted 03rd September 2023)
Following the confirmation by Airlink, that the airline has ceased operations on the Johannesburg to Entebbe route at the end of August, has national airline Uganda Airlines swiftly reacted and announced daily services to South Africa’s main business hub, effective 01st of October.
This follows hot on the heels of the airline’s confirmation that effective 19th of October they will launch flights between Entebbe and Lagos, later that month to be followed by flights to Mumbai.
The airline also launched a brand new custom developed App for the convenience of passengers as ATCNews reported.
Said Airlink’s CEO and Managing Director, Rodger Foster about the development:
“Prior to COVID, Airlink operated the Johannesburg-Entebbe route exclusively six times week with sustainable viability. In Sep 2021, after Uganda and South Africa re-opened their markets for intra-African travel, Airlink resumed services with four flights a week on the route. Despite best efforts to promote traffic between the two cities, the post-COVID demand in both directions has remained weak and traffic volumes are too thin to support competing airlines.
In light of the persistent commercial unviability of the route Airlink will withdraw the service from 28 August 2023.
Airlink has contacted ticket-holders and is offering to refund in full or re-route on one of its daily flights to Nairobi with onward connections to Entebbe.
Airlink will monitor the market and will be ready to return to serving the route when traffic volumes can sustain two competing airlines. ”
Notably has Airlink expanded their East Africa services with flights to Nairobi in Kenya, joining Dar es Salaam in Tanzania as well as recently launched flights to Blantyre and Lilongwe while also increasing frequencies to key Southern African destinations.
As Uganda Airlines has in the past used a mix of their CRJ900 and their Airbus A330-800Neo on the route, can it be expexted that this will continue as the wide body Airbus is able to uplift palleted cargo between the two destinations, the only such option for direct air cargo shipments, avoiding transshipping with all the related challenges at other airports in the region.
