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Uganda’s Cabinet has issued a directive requiring all government officials to use the national carrier, Uganda Airlines, for official international travel, provided the airline serves the destination.

Cabinet has issued a new directive instructing all government officials to always use the national carrier, Uganda Airlines for travels abroad.

According to the Minister for ICT and National Guidance, Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, the directive will work on travels to destinations where the national carrier flies.

“We are making it mandatory that government officials must travel with Uganda Airlines where the national carrier is flying. Unless your destination doesn’t have Uganda Airlines as one of its routes, you can be excused,” Dr. Baryomunsi said.

He cautioned accounting officers, agencies, and departments of government to ensure they comply with the new directive.

“If you are a civil servant, public official, minister, permanent secretary, commissioner or any other government official whose travel is being supported or facilitated by government and where the route you are taking has Uganda Airline flying there, then it mandatory you should fly Uganda Airlines,” Baryomunsi noted.

The minister said whereas the same guidance had been issued earlier, officials had not heeded to it and many were flying abroad using other carriers other than Uganda Airlines. He however said this time this directive must be complied with, without fail.

Re-launched in 2019 after being liquidated over 20 years back, Uganda Airlines has sought to dominate the African skies.

The Ugandan national carrier has a fleet of six aircraft including two Airbus A330Neo which each have a capacity of 257 seat and four 72-seat Mitsubishi CRJ-900.

Uganda Airlines flies to several destinations including Nairobi, Mombasa, Mogadishu, Bujumbura, Dar es Salaam, Dubai, Johannesburg, Juba, Kilimanjaro, Kinshasa, and Zanzibar.

The airline is soon expected to start flying to Mumbai, London, and Guangzhou among other destinations.