{"id":40041,"date":"2019-08-31T09:48:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T01:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=40041"},"modified":"2019-08-31T09:48:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T01:48:38","slug":"resurrected-uganda-airlines-flies-into-crowded-african-skies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=40041","title":{"rendered":"Resurrected Uganda Airlines flies into crowded African skies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/a>KAMPALA, Aug 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Uganda Airlines has taken to the skies once more after almost two decades out of action, but flies into a crowded aviation market in Africa where carriers have the weakest finances and emptiest planes of any region in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state carrier launched commercial flights on Wednesday, its first since it was liquidated in 2001, aiming to take a slice of the East African aviation business that is dominated by Ethiopian Airlines, the continent\u2019s success story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uganda is the latest African government to pour money into national flag carriers; Tanzania and Senegal are also resurrecting their airlines, while the likes of Rwanda, Ivory Coast and Togo are expanding theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But such efforts have been hampered by high business costs as well as protectionism, which has impeded a continental open-skies agreement – something industry experts say is vital for the success of African carriers in a tough market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The African market is forecast to grow almost 5% a year over the next two decades in terms of passengers, faster than mature markets, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). However, this is from a low base and most state-owned flag carriers in the region are losing money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the global aviation industry is on track to make a profit of $28 billion, African airlines are projected to make combined losses of $100 million this year, IATA said in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uganda Airlines, like some of its rivals, aims to attract more domestic travellers to help it buck the gloomy continental trend. Around 2 million passengers per year travel through Entebbe, Uganda\u2019s main airport. Around 70% are Ugandans, said the carrier\u2019s CEO Ephraim Bagenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll those currently travel on foreign airlines,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want part of that cake.\u201d — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMPALA, Aug 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Uganda Airlines has taken to the skies once more after almost two decades out of action, but flies into a crowded aviation market in Africa where carriers have the weakest finances and emptiest planes of any region in the world. The state carrier launched commercial flights on Wednesday, its first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40041"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}