As the debate on whether the revived national carrier Uganda Airlines will be successful, theUgandan has leanrt that the airline has started on a high note after passengers flying to Tanzania between 3rd and 7th September have been turned away after full booking of the available space.
The new Uganda Airlines took to the skies officially on Wednesday, for the first time in nearly 18 years.
Dar es Salaam which is the most booked route at the moment is followed by Mogadishu, Nairobi.
“I didn’t know @UG_Airlines are already doing very well. I wanted a ticket to Dar next week and I am informed it’s fully booked for the flights between 3rd and 7th. Wow,” Mr. Ramadhan Ggoobi, an economist and MUBS lecturer tweeted on Thursday.
The bookings are fast coming in and are expected to peak as time passes.
The national carrier started with flights to Nairobi, Juba and Mogadishu.
The first flight is expected to leave Entebbe at 6.00am and land at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi at 7.15am.
The Mogadishu flight left Entebbe at 5.37pm and landed at Aden Adde International Airport at 8:00pm.
The revived airline has plans for two daily flights to Nairobi and Juba, and one daily flight to Dar es Salaam, which will be plied by four Bombardier CRJ 900s aircraft, two of which arrived in the country on April 24.
The other two are expected at the start of October.
The two aircraft will be deployed immediately to new routes, and also to increase frequency on those already started.
The carrier plans to increase the number of destinations to include Bujumbura (three times weekly), Mombasa (three times weekly), and Kilimanjaro (daily). Other destinations will be Harare, Accra, Lusaka and Johannesburg.
The airline recently released promotional rates that will run for two months: Return tickets cost $278 for Nairobi, $225 for Juba, $590 for Mogadishu, $286 for Dar es Salaam, $292 for Bujumbura, $325 for Mombasa and $311 for Kilimanjaro.
The government has also made a down payment of Ush74 billion ($20 million) on two Airbus A330-800 Neos, which will be used for long haul flights and are expected to be in the country between 2020 and 2021. The airline will then introduce longer flights to Europe, China, and India.