Uganda Airlines begins operating flights to Harare and Lusaka

Just two weeks after the airline added Abuja to its Lagos route, Uganda Airlines Flight UR 720 made its debut trip from Entebbe to Lusaka, Zambia, and Harare, Zimbabwe, on September 25, 2024, at 10 a.m. local time. These two destinations rank 15th and 16th in the airline’s network.

For the first time in twenty-three years, direct flights from Uganda will service the two capital cities of Harare and Lusaka four times each week. With Uganda Airlines’ debut, rivals Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, and RwandAir—which have been profiting from connecting traffic from Entebbe to various locations in Zambia and Zimbabwe—may face disruptions.

While KQ and Ethiopian fly multiple times a day to Harare and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Lusaka and Livingstone in Zambia, RwandAir travels to Harare and Lusaka.

In addition to being major sources of business travel and leisure travel for friends and family, Uganda Airlines also depends on these two locations to provide connecting flights for its upcoming flights to India, Dubai, and eventually London, which officials predict will depart before the end of the year.

“We are delighted to be back in the capital cities of Zambia and Zimbabwe, two nations with strong ties to Uganda’s history and culture. According to Uganda Airlines CEO Jenifer Bamuturaki, “These two destinations, which increase options for travel between East Africa and Southern Africa, demonstrate our commitment to increase travel options for Africans by providing safe, affordable, and reliable air transport services to connect the continent.”

According to airline representatives who spoke with The EastAfrican, the carrier has obtained important approvals, thus the start of flights to London is now more certain. They stated that offices and service contracts for various areas of the airline’s operations, along with slots for the planes that would land at London Gatwick twice a week, have already been obtained.

We anticipate the debut in early December.

However, the airline is experiencing a capacity shortage as its route network grows and it begins to consider Accra, Ghana. Officials worry internally that the six aircraft in the fleet now exceeds its carrying capacity. Within the current network, a new route or more frequencies cannot be accommodated by the six CRJ-900s, which are presently carrying the majority of the workload on 13 routes. The scheduled London services are the only ones that can be operated by the two A330s that make up the main fleet on the Dubai, Lagos, and Mumbai routes.

The projected route to Guangzhou, China, is in peril since future growth will not be possible without extra capacity through acquisition or lease.

The purchase of two Airbus A320s as early as next year and two Boeing 787-800 Dreamliners around 2030 has been approved by shareholders, but no promises have been made regarding pre-delivery payments to the manufacturers.