Uganda Airline, the country’s national flag carrier, today announced it is opening three new routes to Abuja Nigeria, Harare in Zimbabwe and Lusaka of Zambia in a bid to expand its coverage on both the regional and international markets.
The announcement which was made during a press conference in Kampala coincided with the Airline’s fifth anniversary ever since its revival.
“We are excited because we are launching them (the routes) at the same time when we are celebrating five years since we started operations in August 2019” Uganda Airlines CEO Jennifer Bamuturaki said.
She said the entry into these markets is meant to build an efficient and optimized regional market which will feed and finance a more profitable long haul market for Uganda Airlines as it grows its fleet and aircraft utilization.
The new routes add to the existing ones to Bujumbura, Dar es Salaam, Dubai, Johannesburg, Juba, Kilimanjaro, Kinshasa, Lagos, Mogadishu, Mombasa, Mumbai, Nairobi, and Zanzibar to expand the national carrier to 16 destinations.
The Uganda Airlines Chief commercial officer Adedayo Olawuyi said they are looking at breaking even in the first 18 months of operating the new routes.
“The addition of the three routes should bring us an additional 10% increase to the revenue we are getting today,” Olawuyi said.
Recently, the national carrier acquired new and bigger aircrafts in preparation for long haul flights to London, Guangzhou and other cities in Europe.
“Our whole point is to improve our utilization. An airline makes money only when the aircrafts are in the air.” Bamuturaki added.
She said Uganda Airlines also wants to create a robust regional network that will serve as a feeder for its long haul market especially London which will be announced any day, Bombay which is already operational, and Guangzhou which will soon be announced.