Uganda Airlines to Launch Direct Flights to London Heathrow

The flag carrier of Uganda, Uganda Airlines, is due to finally launch direct flights from Uganda to London. 

The carrier will use its Airbus A330-800neo for the route. 

The highly-anticipated connection 

The new direct flight will run from Entebbe International Airport, which is 40km by road from Uganda’s capital, to London Heathrow Airport. 

Timings have yet to be announced, but the route from Uganda to London will operate every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 

The announcement comes days after Uganda’s President Museveni made threats to take action against the flag carrier for the long delay in launching direct flights to the UK, which would come as an economic boost for the East African country the sooner it is in operation.

Uganda Airlines was granted rights and slots to fly to London last year but the flights never took off. According to the carrier’s Chief Executive Officer, Jenifer Bamuturaki, the UK’s aviation body requested the carrier to apply for a foreign carrier permit. 

This new requirement is a consequence of changes caused by Brexit regulations put into place once the UK officially left the EU. All non-UK air carriers who wanted to operate commercial servers from or to the UK must now obtain a Foreign Carrier Permit before flights can start. Unfortunately for Uganda Airlines, the process typically takes six months.  

Now, the matter has been resolved and the landlocked East African country can start its flights to London. 

Uganda Airlines is now continuing to plan for the future as they look to expand its regional network and dominate the international market from Uganda by offering much more long-haul routes (they started by resuming flights to Dubai last October).

On Friday, they announced plans to launch flights to Saudi Arabia. 

Let us know what you think about Uganda’s new connection to London below.