Uganda Airlines has postponed its plans to begin maiden Nairobi flights from the 31st of July 2019, to the end of August 2019.
The decision to postpone, is as a result of failure to acquire the necessary certification on time.
Uganda’s Works and Transport Minister Monica Azuba in an interview with the Daily Monitor on Monday the 22nd Of July 2019, said that the launch has been put off to next month as the airline has not acquired the Air Operator Certification (AOC).
An Air Operator Certification (AOC), is issued by a national regulator, is the approval certificate granted to an airline to give it permission to use planes for commercial purposes.
Ms Monica Azuba said, “We expected to acquire the AOC by July 29 from the aviation regulator, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) but they decided to take more time to tie all the loose ends.”
According to Business Daily Africa, the Works and Transport Minister also added that part of the ongoing preparations, reservation, bookings, ticketing and accounting systems of Uganda Airlines have been activated, “but in a test environment using the IATA provisional codes”.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), is the trade association of the world’s airlines, with membership currently at 290 airlines.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), is charged ensuring that the global commercial standards for the air transport industry, are upheld.
Ms Monica Azuba further stated that, “We (Ministry of Works) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also wrote to the countries where we expect to fly first, informing them we intend to fly but without the AOC— the licence for commercial flights — you cannot fly in their territories, and they require a copy of it,”.
In April 2019, Uganda Airlines acquired two Bombardier CRJ900 jets in preparation of plying the regional routes, before expanding to Europe and other destinations.
The airline will be flying the Bombardier CRJ-900 aircrafts, with sitting capacity of 76 passengers to regional destinations such as Addis Ababa, Kigali, and Johannesburg.
Other destinations include Accra, Bujumbura, Juba, Kinshasa, and Zanzibar.
The Ugandan national carrier is expected to begin its maiden flight with three destinations Dar-es Salaam, Mogadishu, and Nairobi.
