Uganda Airlines to start payments for two new planes
What you need to know:
- State Minister for Tourism Martin Mugarra Bahinduka, said Uganda’s biggest market for tourism was East Africa and Africa, with Kenya, which brings in an average of 500,000 visitors leading in terms of contribution.
Uganda Airlines will start payments on two mid-range aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, which will be an addition to the existing fleet, next financial year.
Speaking during the launch of Uganda’s participation in the forthcoming Open (Outbound) Travel Market Bombay Tourism Expo expected between January 30 and February 1 in Bombay India, Ms Rahim Shakila, the Uganda Airlines head of corporate affairs, said the two aircraft will supplement the current fleet of Airbus and Bombardier to routes that are busy such as Entebbe-Mumbai, Entebbe-Lagos, and Entebbe-Nairobi-Mumbai.
Others will be Entebbe-Johannesburg, Entebbe-Lusaka, Entebbe-Harare, and Entebbe-Dubai.
Ms Shakila noted that the two planes, which have a capacity of 150 to 160 passengers, will be delivered within a time frame of five years and will largely feed into Uganda’s growing tourism arrivals.
Mr John Mulimba, the Minister of State for Regional Affairs, said Uganda had seen it important to participate in the Indo-Asia travel market show to exploit the potential of one of the world’s leading travel and trade shows in India and Asia, which could bring destination Uganda at the doorsteps of the potentially world’s largest tourism and travel market.
This, he said, will, apart from industrialisation, help Uganda to achieve its agenda of promoting the country as a toursim hub.
“It is therefore gratifying that the country’s missions abroad that have been financed to pilot economic and commercial diplomacy are living to their expectations,” he said.
State Minister for Tourism Martin Mugarra Bahinduka, said Uganda’s biggest market for tourism was East Africa and Africa, with Kenya, which brings in an average of 500,000 visitors leading in terms of contribution.
Other contributors, he said, include India, which has surpassed US and UK, with an average of 31,000 tourists arriving in Uganda from Indians during the period ended June 2024.
Tourism arrivals remain key to the development of Uganda’s aviation sector, which in the 2024 half year to June, grew by about 26 percent to 704,012.
