Uganda Airlines is on track with plans to reopen direct flights to Heathrow Airport in London, after getting an indication from authorities in the United Kingdom that it can operate the service.
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This follows the carrier’s application for services to the UK receiving preliminary approval, while it would take the better part of two years for the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA) to complete its security vetting of Entebbe International Airport.
At the airline level, Uganda Airlines has been cleared but they have two options – to wait until Entebbe International Airport has gone through a security audit by the UK CAA so that they can fly direct from there, or go through a third country whose airport already has the necessary clearances.
The Ugandan carrier has been given intermediate airports in six countries in Africa and Europe, whose airports have a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority security clearance. These are Kenya, Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Tunisia, and Turkey.
The company held an internal meeting to see which of the third-country options suits their operations best and they are now activating the arrangements they had previously made on the ground in the UK for a possible launch of services mid-this year.
“We now have to confirm with them and set up arrangements in line with our cargo designation. On the ground, we had already set up at the airport and what is left is for us to set up a marketing office and reactivate the slots we were initially allocated,” Ms the CEO of Uganda Airlines Bamuturaki said.
It should be noted that the intermediate stop will be purely technical with the Ugandan carrier not allowed to pick up onward traffic. All passengers and crew on the flight will have to disembark and go through the passenger screening process at the intermediate before getting back on board.
Ghana has already been eliminated among the seven options because its requirements are similar to the UK’s and the Ghana CAA would have to audit the security status at Entebbe International. The airline is now examining the suitability of Algeria and Egypt because they align best with Entebbe from an operational perspective.
“Kenya is a good option but, like Morocco, Turkey and Tunisia, it would involve some deviation off the regular flying track,” Ms Bamuturaki said.
According the east african, the British CAA has told Uganda Airlines that vetting Entebbe would take a long time. However, sources familiar with operations at Entebbe International Airport insist the airport is good enough since other international airlines such as KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Brussels airlines have departures to Europe from there. Until it suspended flights to Uganda in October 2015 over market issues, British Airways also operated four flights a week to Entebbe, from Heathrow.
