New Uganda Airlines Service to Fill Entebbe-Johannesburg Gap

Uganda Airlines increased frequency on the Entebbe-Johannesburg route from five weekly flights to daily starting October 1. Although driven by different imperatives, the move comes on the back of a decision by competitor Airlink to suspend its operations on the route. While Airlink pulled the plug on the route effective August 28, citing thin traffic insufficient to support two competing operators, Uganda Airlines is going daily to tap into connecting traffic to feed into its service to Mumbai that starts October 7. The carriers went head-to-head on the route when Airlink launched its Entebbe service on September 19, 2021, with 4x weekly service, joining Uganda Airlines, which had launched the route on May 31, 2021. Both carriers entered the route during a period of biting Covid-19 travel mandates. Despite the relaxation of pandemic restrictions, Airlink’s chief executive, Rodger Foster, laments that demand has not recovered sufficiently to support a viable operation. “Despite our 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,” he said. [caption id="attachment_76683" align="aligncenter" width="249"] Roget Foster[/caption] Airlink started plying the route as its then franchise partner, South African Airways, headed into administration, which saw it retreat from East Africa. Foster says before COVID, Airlink operated the Johannesburg-Entebbe route exclusively six times a week with sustainable viability. Services were halted in March 2020 as global travel plunged into a near-universal closure of passenger operations. Airlink relaunched the route in September 2021, offering connectivity to its wide network in southern Africa. Airlink is, however, keeping its future options open, with Foster saying the carrier “will monitor the market and will be ready to return to serving the route when traffic volumes can sustain two competing airlines." Meanwhile, Uganda Airlines operates the service using its 88-seat CRJ-900s and is concluding a codeshare agreement with SAA. The codeshare will allow it to fan out within South Africa while complementing its offerings into east and central Africa at the tunnel's northern end. The carrier has also applied for rights to Cape Town to tap further into the South African Indian community. Although Durban might be a better bet for that.

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