Uganda Airlines keen to expand access to Indian market

Uganda says it will seek to revise its services agreement (BASA) with India to add more points of access to the sub-continent for flag carrier Uganda Airlines. The airline launched services to Mumbai over the weekend. UR430, the first direct flight between the two countries, took off for Mumbai as scheduled at 13.35 local time on October 7, touching down at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at 22.40 Mumbai time. [caption id="attachment_77671" align="aligncenter" width="580"] Source: Michael Wakabi[/caption] The service will operate every Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday, with return flights on the following day. But with eighty percent of the 35.000-strong Indian community resident in Uganda coming from north-western India, the carrier is getting calls to expand services to secondary cities in the region. Speaking at the Uganda-India Business Forum in Mumbai earlier today - one of the sideline events- to mark the resumption of direct flights between Uganda and India after a fifty-year hiatus, Uganda’s Minister for Works and Transport, Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, asked for a revision of the existing BASA, which restricts Uganda Airlines services to Mumbai. “This is our entry point into Asia, and it is poised to add momentum and cement the excellent bilateral relations we have enjoyed for centuries. I will be appealing to the relevant offices later, to see that we can get rights to Delhi and other cities in India. I, therefore, call on government and private sector agents on both sides to explore ways of making it easy for our people to interact,” Katumba said. Officials told AirInsight that when negotiations led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs open, Uganda will be seeking designations for services to New Delhi and Ahmedabad in the near term. Other Indian destinations, such as Chennai, are also on the radar, but for now, these will be served through codeshare partners yet to be announced. Urgent need for mid-range aircraft However, the flights to Mumbai, combined with Lagos, which launches on October 19, have amplified the urgent need for a mid-range aircraft. With only two A330-800s which will be operating services to Dubai, and Mumbai as well as pending routes to Guangzhou and London, the fleet is coming under pressure. The services to Mumbai and Lagos are not fully aligned because of fleet constraints. Gen. Katumba said the acquisition of the mid-range aircraft which was difficult to defend when the A330s were parked on the tarmac most of the time, had now become a matter of urgency. “Now that the Airbuses are getting busy, I will be making a fresh push in cabinet, for the purchase of at least two aircraft, in the class of the B737,” Katumba said. He clarified that the reference to the Boeing 737 did not mean that a decision had been made. AirInsight has been told that technical evaluations between the MAX and the competing Airbus A320neo family were complete. Officials are not evaluating the two airframers' value proposition and contract terms. A critical meeting is expected towards the end of October to decide the winning bid. “It has been a pain to see these aircraft packed but now they will spend more time in the air, we need to quickly advance towards procuring the aircraft that will bridge the capacity gap between the CRJ and the A330. It is critical that this is resolved soon, to build margin into the schedule as the network expands,” Katumba said.

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