Critical issues on Uganda airlines
Following the ministerial statement on May 18 that government has deposited Shs4.43 billion for purchase of six aircraft, breaking-even in five years, and that the airline will start flying by November, 2018, questions arise. Given the above facts, any experienced aviator should be running mad.
Rwandair is struggling to survive in less than 10 years of its operations or crippling the country’s economy due to similar mistakes the Uganda government is making - maybe because of quack aviation advisors or a another group of corrupt and self-centered advisers, who see this as an opportunity to squander taxpayers money.
The following critical issues must be addressed:
What is the cost implication of running two different makes of aircraft, implying two different maintenance and training plans? And talk of training; we should by now have established a fully fledged nursery flying school and not the cosmetic Soroti Flying School to feed the national carrier with qualified CRJ and A320 pilots. Are we planning to import crews?
When purchasing new aircrafts from the factory, one can only make orders for 10 planes or more unless you are purchasing from a third party. And if so, I have never seen government requesting for bids for supplying planes. This is clearly a non-transparent procurement move, which I fear will prove fatal to either peoples lives or a waste of taxpayers’ money.
A planned and well-thought out business proposal would have advised government to go in for lease purchase rather than an outright purchase, which is economically and operationally non-viable. Even if we manage to take off, I don’t think we will be in the skies for more than three months.
The planned delivery by 2020 of airbus is unrealistic, since by that time the A330-200 will be obsolete/outdated as seen by the Turkish Airline with 37 of the same and struggling to dispose them of. Unless we plan to run them for cargo given that there are no shortcuts in aviation operation.
Other critical questions to ask are: Do we have the viable routes with Kenyan and Rwanda airways coming here three to four times daily? Do we have the IATA code, which is obtained after satisfying the IOSA (international operators safety audit)? Do we have the ground handling capacity?
The initial proposal forwarded to government in 2014 by Macheli Kim of Air Oasis (L) Ltd for a joint venture with a private company, which has operational experience and funding in airline business, would be a better choice.
The government could own shares for a specific period and later take full shares after breaking even. Short of doing so, the path we are taking, will in five years, have a broken-odd.
Denis Ivan Wanambwa,
[email protected]
