If you had a chance, would you fly Uganda airlines?

Jan 23, 2015

It still amazes me that there are some people in Ugandan that are hell bent on convincing the Government that it should establish a national airline; even when most evidence is clear that it would not work.

By Kalungi Kabuye (@KalungiKabuye)

It still amazes me that there are some people in Ugandan that are hell bent on convincing the Government that it should establish a national airline; even when most evidence is clear that it would not work.

They usually sprout ‘patriotism’ as the reasons for calling for a national airline, but I doubt if these folk know how to spell the word ‘patriot’. Many Ugandans are known to love to show just how bad the country can be when something goes wrong. For example they will post on social media 10-year-old photos of potholed Kampala roads, and write: “…only in Uganda!” So why are they all of a sudden calling on patriotism as the reason to have a national airline?

We are not proud of a corruption free country, so we continue to steal public funds that would make Uganda a better place. We are not proud of a clean and orderly city, so we shall throw garbage wherever we want; we ignore all traffic laws and end up with a disorganised transport system. Why would we all of a sudden be proud of a national airline? Because Rwanda has one? Duh!

A buddy of mine reminded me that Ugandan patriotism can be summed up in one phrase: ‘man eateth where they worketh’. We all laughed at that, and how people are angling for jobs and ‘eating’ opportunities.

But it is more serious than that; in the Ugandan 2015 magazine, published late last year by the Vision Group, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang H. Thome, an expert on aviation, largely laid the blame for why most carriers operating out of Entebbe have collapsed on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which he accused of preventing safe aviation, instead of promoting. He sees the regulators as judge, jury and executioners all in one .

You remember Alliance Air, operated jointly by Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa? It only had one old plane and only one route to London, and that didn’t take it very far. Africa One came next with plans to fly between Lagos, Entebbe and Dubai. The Lagos deal never bore fruit, and any money made from the Dubai route was burnt in trying to break into the Entebbe to Nairobi route. Bust it went.

East African Airlines and Victoria Airlines also came and went in short shrift, also burnt by the Entebbe-Nairobi route. Finally Air Uganda seemed to have survived where others had dared and failed. It flew to Mogadishu, Juba, Kigali, Bujumbura, Nairobi, Mombasa and Dar er Salaam. It was almost a quasi-national carrier, and the Ugandan government bought shares in it.

But last year it also shut down, and it is largely thought it was the fault of the CAA, which failed in its overseer capacity. With the demise of Air Uganda, calls are even louder for the formation of a national carrier.

Doubts of its economic viability notwithstanding, I found myself wondering; given Ugandans extremely poor work ethics and attitude to work, would Uganda Airlines be safe to fly?

I asked a few of my friends, and a surprising number said yes, they would fly Uganda Airlines. They insisted that with international air standards what they are now, there would be no room for Ugandans to act otherwise or they would not get a license to fly.

But when I reminded them that it is the CAA that is supposed to uphold those international standards and issue licenses; and that it was that lack of supervision that led to the collapse of Air Uganda they, almost to a person, declared they would never set foot in a an airline run by Ugandans.

So, with the campaign to re-launch Uganda Airlines bound to gain momentum in this elections campaign season; ask yourself, would you fly Uganda Airlines?

Air Uganda to begin domestic flights