Summary
- Mumbai and Lagos will probably be served three weekly
- Transit passengers will probably be vital for each markets, with a couple of high-volume cities connected
- Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Lagos, and Nairobi will probably be key for the Mumbai route
Uganda Airlines has confirmed plans to start recent but delayed routes between Entebbe and each Mumbai and Lagos. Each destinations were mentioned previously but are actually available to book. Oddly, each starts in a few month – little or no lead time for any recent route, especially involving widebodies.
Uganda Airlines to India
The flag carrier will begin Entebbe-Mumbai on October seventh, not the eighth, as disclosed on Aeroroutes. At 3,038 miles (4,890 km), it should – for now – be the airline’s longest route.
Running three weekly, it should use the 258-seat, three-class Airbus A330-800 (hereafter called the A330neo), a deeply unpopular type and Uganda Airlines’ only widebody equipment. It has two amongst its six-aircraft fleet (!), the others being CRJ-900s.
It’s scheduled as follows, with all times local:
- Entebbe to Mumbai: UR430, 13:35-23:15 (Sat); 20:15-05:55+1 (Mon, Wed)
- Mumbai to Entebbe: UR431, 01:10-05:50 (Sun); 07:55-12:35 (Tue, Thu)
Photo: Airbus.
Cirium data shows no airline has had regular Entebbe-Mumbai flights prior to now 20 years. Far more distantly, Air India served the Uganda airport, seemingly starting in 1968.
~44,000 passengers in 2019
Within the pre-pandemic 2019, the point-to-point market had roughly 44,000 roundtrip passengers, based on booking data, most of whom flew with Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa. Greater than 35,000 Indian passport holders live in Uganda, while India is popular for medical care and students.
The P2P market is an affordable size to stimulate and construct on. It was, after all, a smaller market than Mumbai-Nairobi (98,000) and Dar es Salaam (59,000). IndiGo joined Kenya Airways to Nairobi earlier this yr, while Air Tanzania serves Mumbai via Mombasa.
Photo: Tom Boon | Easy Flying.
Uganda Airlines may also goal connecting passengers, although its network, frequencies, and timings are, generally speaking, far less competitive versus other, larger carriers. Dar, Nairobi, Johannesburg – and forthcoming Lagos – will probably be key targets and are coordinated to attach with Mumbai. These 4 markets had over 320,000 Mumbai passengers in 2019.
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Entebbe-Lagos is starting too
Uganda Airlines’ recent path to Lagos – 2,059 miles (3,314 km) away – starts on October nineteenth. It should also use the A330neo; in any case, the CRJ-900 could be moderately unsuitable, to say the least, which shows equipment problems in the long run. With three weekly flights, it’s scheduled as follows, with all times local:
- Entebbe-Lagos UR900, 07:00-09:30 (Mon, Sun); 16:00-18:30 (Thu)
- Lagos-Entebbe: UR901, 11:00-17:30 (Mon, Sun); 20:00-02:30+1 (Thu)
Photo: Airbus.
In 2019, ~16,000 flew Entebbe-Lagos-Nairobi, a small local marketplace for a three-weekly widebody operation. The timings are designed to attach with Mumbai, Dubai, and Johannesburg flights on a two-way basis with reasonably short connection times.
Where else would you want Uganda Airlines to fly? It has previously mentioned London and Guangzhou, amongst others. Tell us within the comments.