Uganda Airlines has been forced to ground its two Airbus A330-800 long-haul aircraft due to unscheduled maintenance, disrupting the carrier’s intercontinental network and temporarily suspending flights to key destinations including London Gatwick, Mumbai and occasionally Dubai.
The airline’s only wide-body aircraft left, after a first A330 was grounded mid-January, stopped operating on February 20 after the airline announced the jets had been withdrawn due to “unscheduled maintenance.”
Media reports suggest the issue could be linked to the Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines powering the aircraft, with possible cracks found on engine blades on one jet. Uganda Airlines has not confirmed the exact nature of the technical problem. Maintenance has long been a challenge for the airline. With limited capabilities at its Entebbe base, major technical work must be carried out abroad, significantly increasing costs.
Ethiopian Airlines to the rescue
With no backup wide-body capacity, the Ugandan flag carrier however moved quickly to stabilize operations and save the winter season.
Since March 7, Uganda Airlines has wet-leased a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner from Ethiopian Airlines to maintain its long-haul services.
The aircraft was ferried from Addis Ababa to Entebbe ahead of entering service and is being operated under an ACMI agreement that includes Ethiopian Airlines’ crew, maintenance and insurance support.
Under the temporary arrangement, Uganda Airlines serves again London Gatwick with three flights a week as well as Mumbai with two weekly flights. Uganda Airlines however indicates to work for a return of its A330-800 fleet to service.
The short-term lease is designed to ensure operational continuity and protect critical airport slots, particularly at London Gatwick, where airlines must operate most of their allocated slots or risk losing them under international “use-it-or-lose-it” rules.
The disruption highlights meanwhile the fragility of Uganda Airlines. Aside from the grounded A330-800s, the carrier operates only a leased Airbus A320 and a small regional fleet of Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft, leaving it with limited resilience when technical issues arise.
