In July last year, Canadian Jet manufacturer Bombardier Commercial Aircraft announced that it had signed a firm order for four CRJ900 regional jets with Uganda Airlines at an estimated cost of about UGX 700 billion.
The Minister for Works and Transport, Monica Azuba said the first of the CRJ-900s would arrive in January this year followed by the remaining three over the following three months, but the time frame was extended under unavoidable circumstances.
The arrival was pushed to February, and then to April, and this was a date to be met given the controversy that surrounded the stakeholders of the Uganda Airlines, and the delay in payment for the said aircraft.
The latest information on the planes is that the first is scheduled to arrive on April 23rd, ‘towards 3pm’. This is according to the Government Citizen Interaction Centre, which is under the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance.
The arrival of the first bombardier will open the doors of hope for the revival of the Uganda Airlines, which went defunct in the early 2000’s. The Airline was initially slated to launch in April this year which doubled as the carrier start date before an alteration at the Ministry of Works and Transport resulted in a new launch date as June 2019.
In February, the very first of Uganda Airlines’ Bombardier CRJ-900s (CRJ9) was flown to the skies in a test flight conducted in Canada.
The Bombardier CRJ900 plane, with a seating capacity of up to 90 passengers, is expected to fly to regional destinations such as Nairobi, Kigali, Bujumbura and Juba among others.
