Uganda on Tuesday received two planes from Canadian Aircraft manufacturer Bombardier as it prepares to relaunch its obsolete national carrier in an attempt to capitalize on the growing aviation industry in the East African Region.
According to a news report by Reuters, the CRJ900 planes, which landed at Entebbe Airport on Tuesday morning, cost an estimated Ksh. 280 billion to procure from the Canadian based airplane manufacturer and they were received at the airport by various dignitaries key among them President Yoweri Museveni.
Reuters similarly reports that President Museveni views the relaunch of the county’s national carrier as an avenue that will greatly increase the government’s revenue collection streams which will greatly boost the country’s economy.
“By starting an airline we are going to reduce on the foreign exchange expenditure. Ugandans will be spending money but spending it on our airline,” President Yoweri Museveni is quoted as saying by Reuters.
Similarly the Ugandan President was adamant that the revitalized airline will increase competition for Kenya and Ethiopia Airways that have largely dominated the aviation scene in the East African region for the past four decades.
The initial relaunch plans, according to the report, will see the airline acquire four more planes before regional commercial flights begin in July. Long Haul flights to other continents are expected to begin much later.
Ugandan Airlines was founded in 1976 by then Ugandan leader Idi Amin however President Yoweri Museveni liquidated the carrier in the 1990s when he came into power.
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