Uganda Needs To Set Up A National Airline Urgently

By Allan Rotich Posted 27 April 2006 @ 01:37 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

Nairobi (IBTimes.com) - The people of Uganda are calling upon our government to re-establish a national airline as a matter of urgency, national interest and pride. Uganda must have a national airline now.

An airline is an important national asset. Any nation worth its salt must support a national airline where it has a stake. It can wholly own the airline or it can partially run a carrier with well-defined shareholding of 60% government and 40% the private sector.

The experience of life right now is that the world is making money, therefore the people of Uganda must also make money out of the aviation industry and tourism.

Since the unfortunate collapse of Uganda Airlines, our country has lost a lot of money to foreign carriers.

Kenya Airways, which prides itself as the national carrier of Uganda, repatriates away over US $1 million every month to Nairobi. Emirates Airlines, which started with two flights four years ago, now has daily flights out of Entebbe to Dubai, which is its hub, and to the rest of the world. Emirates is estimated to repatriate US $2million to Dubai every month. This money, together with what other carriers repatriate from here is what the national carrier (if we had one) would be sharing.

In 2002, I approached the Minister for Privatization, Prof. Peter Kasenene and I begged him to do everything possible and arrange a meeting for some of us former East African Airways (EAA) workers to meet the President.

We had worked out a grand plan to revive Uganda Airlines. We have vast knowledge and experience in international travel and aviation as well as tourism.

We wanted to prove to President Yoweri Museveni the numerous advantages of owning a national airline. Prof. Kasenene did not and he insisted on the government policy at that time of privatisation.

Later on, a son of Ugandan Capt. Joseph Roy, who has done a lot to build the economy of Uganda, started an airline Afica One. He struggled to keep the airline afloat but due to lack of government support and protection against already established foreign carriers, Africa One collapsed. This was very bad for Uganda.

Two years ago, three Ugandans Ben Mutyaba, Justin Olwedo Okot, and Ramesh Mashran started the East African Airline. This airline has gone through terrible difficulties to operate up to now. The major difficulty is the stiff competition from Kenya Airways on the Entebbe/Nairobi route which Kenya Airways has monopolised. Still due to poor government support, EAA and Kenya Airways failed to get to agreeable operational schedules.

For example, if East African Airlines was the one operating four daily flights into Nairobi and repatriating that amount of money, the Kenya Government would not just sit back and watch.

We know that the Rwanda government had to put in strong intervention to make sure that Kenya Airways and South Africa Airways had to come to code-sharing agreement with Rwanda Airline before they could continue operating into Kigali.

After realising what this country has lost and after realising the huge benefits and the enormous amount of wealth it would acquire by owning a national carrier, we are calling upon the government of Uganda, through an Act of Parliament, to take over East African Airlines now without delay and make it the national carrier of Uganda.

The current directors or owners of EAA can be paid off or they can retain a small amount of shareholding in the new set up. Mutyaba, with his vast knowledge of the airline industry, would continue to manage the airline.

This is a matter of national importance and interest, therefore we are appealing to all Members of Parliament (NRM, FDC, UPC, CP, JEMA and Independents) to pass a motion making East African Airlines the national airline of Uganda.

Looking outside Uganda we can see that some famous world airlines were started by individual nationals of those countries and later on the governments took them over.

The clear example is Olympic Airways. It was started by the late Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onasis. Later on in 1970s the government of Greece nationalised it.

The famous Air India was started by the great Indian industrialist, J.R.D Tata in the 1940s and later on the government of India took it over up to now.

What shall we achieve as a result of Uganda having a national airline? The economy will expand tremendously, and Ugandans will get employment. We shall have more cargo space for the horticultural products, which we export, plus other products, which we export.

The tourism industry will prosper because the airline will work with world tourism coordinators and operators to bring in thousands of tourists from USA, Europe, Middle East, the Far East, Australia and Africa. You cannot develop tourism conveniently and effectively, if you do not own a national airline.

Today if you walked into the offices of the nine airlines which fly into Entebbe and asked for any literature of promoting tourism in Uganda, you will be lucky to get even a simple black and white brochure.

The economy of Kenya has grown tremendously in the last 20 years because of Kenya Airways and tourism.

In Ethiopia, despite all the problems they had during and after the time of former President Haile Mengetisu Mariam, the economy remained stable because of Ethiopia Airlines. Ethiopia Airlines contributes almost 70% to the national revenue.

When I was in Lesotho in 1998, I read a Johannesburg newspaper which published a story on the tourism earnings of South Africa which indicated that in 1997, (barely 3 years after South Africa had opened up to the outside world) South Africa earned US $ 5 billion from tourism alone.

In 2004 the South African High Commission in Kampala published a supplement in local papers here, on the ten-years economic development achievement. In this supplement it was clearly shown that South Africa earned US $ 10 billion in 2003 from tourism alone.

Remember, South Africans do not have Murchison Falls, Rwenzori Moutains, Semuliki Valley, Bwindi, Mt. Elgon, River Nile, Kidepo Valley, Sese Islands or Lake Victoria.

With the formation of a national airline and the ending of the Kony war in the north, which is not very far from now, Ugandans will develop tourism full scale and we shall make this country a world tourism destination.

In 2007 we are hosting the big Commonwealth Conference here but imagine out of the 5,000 expected delegates, we shall not earn even a single dollar from their air travel to and from Entebbe.

As soon as the Government takes over EAA we shall be in a better position to purchase modern aircraft with a government guarantee to the aircraft manufacturers in USA and Europe.

We appeal to President Museveni to heed our request, form a national airline and he will see how we shall work. We have qualified, dedicated and patriotic manpower to run the national airline of Uganda.

The author is a former employee of the defunct East African Airways Corporation, Air-India, Panam, Cen East Airlines and several Travel Agencies In Kenya.