By Frank Kamuntu
Uganda Airlines has confirmed plans to begin new (but delayed) routes between Entebbe and both Mumbai and Lagos. Both destinations were mentioned previously but are now available to book. Oddly, each starts in about a month – very little lead time for any new route, especially involving widebodies.
The flag carrier will begin Entebbe-Mumbai on October 7th, not the 8th, as disclosed on Aeroroutes. At 3,038 miles (4,890 km), it will – for now – be the airline’s longest route. Running thrice weekly, it will use the 258-seat, three-class Airbus A330-800 (hereafter referred to as the A330neo), a deeply unpopular type and Uganda Airlines’ only widebody equipment. It has two among its six-aircraft fleet (!), the others being CRJ-900s.
It is scheduled as follows, with all times local:
1. Entebbe to Mumbai: UR430, 13:35-23:15 (Sat); 20:15-05:55+1 (Mon, Wed)
2. Mumbai to Entebbe: UR431, 01:10-05:50 (Sun); 07:55-12:35 (Tue, Thu)
Cirium data shows no airline has had regular Entebbe-Mumbai flights in the past 20 years. Much more distantly, Air India served the Uganda airport, seemingly starting in 1968.
44,000 Passengers In 2019
In the pre-pandemic 2019, the point-to-point market had approximately 44,000 roundtrip passengers, based on booking data, most of whom flew with Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa. More than 35,000 Indian passport holders live in Uganda, while India is popular for medical care and students.
The P2P market is a reasonable size to build on and should be easy to stimulate and grow. It was, of course, a smaller market than Mumbai-Nairobi (98,000) and Dar es Salaam (59,000). IndiGo joined Kenya Airways to Nairobi earlier this year, while Air Tanzania serves Mumbai from Dar.
Uganda Airlines will also target connecting passengers, although its network, frequencies, and timings are, generally speaking, far less competitive versus other, larger carriers. Dar, Nairobi, Johannesburg – and forthcoming Lagos – will be key targets and are coordinated to connect with Mumbai. These four markets had over 320,000 Mumbai passengers in 2019.
Entebbe-Lagos Is Starting Too
Uganda Airlines’ new route to Lagos – 2,059 miles (3,314 km) away – starts on October 19th. It will also use the A330neo; after all, the CRJ-900 would be rather unsuitable (to say the very least) which shows equipment problems in the future. With three weekly flights, it is scheduled as follows, with all times local:
1. Entebbe-Lagos UR900, 07:00-09:30 (Mon, Sun); 16:00-18:30 (Thu)
2. Lagos-Entebbe: UR901, 11:00-17:30 (Mon, Sun); 20:00-02:30+1 (Thu)
In 2019, ~16,000 flew Entebbe-Lagos-Nairobi, a small local market for a three-weekly widebody operation. The timings are designed to connect with Mumbai, Dubai, and Johannesburg flights on a two-way basis with reasonably short connection times.
