You may or may not have noticed an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft flying in the Uganda Airlines name. It is a quiet but striking symbol of the strategic shift now underway at the national carrier, brought in swiftly to plug a gaping operational hole but telling a much larger story about the direction the airline is beginning to take.
For the first time since its revival in 2019, there are credible signs that the airline is being repositioned not just to operate but to succeed commercially.
At the center of this shift is Girma Wake. His arrival as acting CEO and strategic advisor brings more than experience. It brings clarity, discipline, and crucially, the kind of institutional authority required to execute a true turnaround. There is a growing sense that he has been given both the mandate and the space to act decisively, with the full blessing and support of government. This matters.
If Uganda Airlines is to reset successfully, difficult decisions will have to be made. The acting CEO’s immediate priorities were to stop the bleeding, arrest all financial leakage and halt the irregular flying patterns that had dented the airline’s reliability. That process now appears to be underway. What we are seeing is the early phase of a broader restructuring, one that must align the airline’s leadership, operations, and commercial strategy with the realities of the market. It will be surgery right at the open heart especially if we are to realise true long-term outcomes. The goal is to build an accountable asset for the country.
Costs will have to be controlled. Strategy will have to be sharpened. And in this moment, a competent high-performance team will have to be built.
But leadership change alone is not enough. The next critical question is fleet. Uganda Airlines’ current fleet strategy has exposed structural weaknesses. The CRJ fleet has struggled operationally, while the Airbus has proven difficult to sustain commercially within the airline’s current network structure and geography.
This is not simply about aircraft performance. It is about ecosystems. In aviation, aircraft do not operate in isolation; they depend on maintenance infrastructure, technical depth, trained personnel, and a reliable supply chain. Africa, in many respects, remains a Boeing-dominated market, with an estimated 70% share and a support network that reflects that reality. Airbus, while globally competitive, does not yet enjoy the same depth of support on the continent. Sustaining Airbus operations at scale often requires airlines with significant capacity and institutional strength such as Ethiopian Airlines. For smaller carriers, operating niche aircraft like the A330-800 without that surrounding ecosystem can quickly become a structural disadvantage.
This is where proximity to Ethiopian Airlines becomes strategically important. Ethiopian is not just Africa’s largest airline; it is the continent’s most complete aviation ecosystem. It has built world-class capabilities in maintenance, training, and operations over decades. For Uganda Airlines, closer cooperation offers immediate advantages: access to technical support, improved reliability, and reduced operational risk.
Uganda does not need to reinvent what already works. It can, instead, plug into a system that has proven its resilience and efficiency while building its own capacity alongside it.
And that brings us to perhaps the most important issue of all, human capital. Six years after its revival, Uganda Airlines has yet to build a deep pool of aviation expertise among Ugandans. This is a critical gap.
An airline is not defined by its aircraft; it is defined by its people. Ethiopian Airlines understood this early. It invested heavily in training, developing leaders from within, and creating a pipeline of skilled professionals across all areas of the business. That is why it has achieved continuity and scale.
Uganda must now do the same. We have capable Ugandans. What has been missing is not talent, but structure, an intentional system to develop that talent into world-class aviation professionals. This requires more than hiring. It requires long-term investment in training, mentorship, and institutional knowledge.
Partnerships with Ethiopian Airlines and global manufacturers like Boeing present a unique opportunity to accelerate this process. Uganda’s aviation training institutions can be strengthened, expanded, and positioned as regional centers of excellence. But this will only happen if it is treated as a strategic priority.
In order to build an airline that is not only operational today but also sustainable tomorrow, it means making the right choices now on leadership, fleet, partnerships, and people.
The signs today are encouraging. There is a sense of direction that has not always been present. There is a seriousness in the decisions being made. And there is an opportunity, perhaps the best since the airline’s revival, to finally place Uganda Airlines on a stable, commercially viable path.
But this moment will only matter if it is followed through.
Derek Nseko is an aviation analyst and CEO at Airspace Africa
derek@airspace-africa.com twitter: @av8r_derek
