Emirates Airlines will have a new competitor on the east Africa-Dubai route with entry of Uganda Airlines next month. Its representative in Uganda, John Gemin, spoke to The Independent on various issues in the aviation sector.
First, what is your assessment of air passenger demand in Uganda amid the COVID-19 pandemic?
The Covid-19 pandemic has truly impacted the airline industry when international borders closed.
We had to suspend our passenger operations out of Uganda, although still carried passengers back home into Uganda. Our cargo operations continued as normal, especially essential goods such as pharmaceuticals and perishables to and from Entebbe airport. We have now resumed operations to Entebbe with five flights a week and have seen solid demand for travel to Dubai and beyond to our network of over 120 destinations. We see gradual leisure and business travel demand returning as travel restrictions ease and vaccination campaigns roll out at pace across different parts of the world.
The Dubai Expo 2020 is going to be the first expo being held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region comprising of the Middle East and Africa. What opportunities is Emirates Airlines presenting to the African travelers, especially, Ugandans in the expo?
As Expo 2020’s Official Airline and Premier Partner, Emirates Airline will play a key role in bringing visitors to the event. We recently launched an exclusive offer for customers to experience the excitement of the World Expo. Emirates customers visiting Dubai, and travelling through Dubai, anytime during the much-awaited event running from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022, will be eligible to receive a free Emirates Expo Day Pass for every flight ticket booked with Emirates.
The special offer is valid on all return tickets that include a flight to or through Dubai, for travel dates between 1 October 2021 and 31 March 2022. The offer applies to tickets purchased in First Class, Business Class and Economy Class and extends to tickets booked through Emirates for flights on Flydubai and customers travelling to anywhere on Emirates’ global network with a connection time of at least six hours in Dubai. One-way ticket holders whose journey originates outside the UAE are entitled to receive the complimentary Expo Day Pass if travelling to Dubai or onwards to other destinations if the minimum connection time is met.
We launched a special offer for our Emirates Skywards members to earn a “Mile-A-Minute” during a holiday or stopover at Dubai. Members can earn 1 Skywards Mile for every 1 minute spent in Dubai between October 2021 and March 2022, earning up to 5,000 Skywards Miles while experiencing the best Dubai has to offer. Emirates will also be showcasing the future of aviation at our dedicated pavilion where visitors will experience the future of commercial aviation.
Uganda Airlines will start flights to Dubai early next month, implying that the Entebbe-Dubai route is likely to be one of the crowded routes. How do you plan to ward off this stiff competition?
We welcome competition – it’s good for consumers and offers more choice and convenience based on their travel requirements. Uganda is a growing market and lots of potential, and the pie can always get bigger. Our objective right now is to maintain and grow load factors as we stimulate leisure and business travel demand. In the longer term, we will continue to assess and carefully analyse the market, its performance and needs, which will show if there are more opportunities for us to further expand our presence to keep our competitive edge.
What are some challenges, if any, that Emirates Airlines faces in its operation in Uganda? What do you think need to be done to ensure smooth airline operation?
Consistent and positive travel confidence among travellers is a challenge that we are working through not just as an airline, but the wider industry. We are seeing this slowly but gradually return as many countries ramp up their vaccination programmes, which are providing peace of mind to the public as countries navigate their way through this crisis.
Our top priority will continue to be the health and safety of our people and customers, and reinstating travel confidence, as we restore our operations safely and sustainably, and grow them further to meet medium and long term travel demand. We are committed to Uganda and our health and safety measures, along with our flexible booking policies, multi-risk insurance, and a slew of other differentiators have been an assurance to customers that no detail has been spared when it comes to their health.
What is the future outlook of air passenger traffic in Uganda and the east African region?
There is still much potential within the African aviation industry. The pandemic has been a setback, not just for this continent, but also for the rest of the world. Africa is not just one of many regions where Emirates operates, but a strategic focus and a very important anchor of our future network. We have successfully grown our operations in the past decades, and we’re committed to further growth and creating more connectivity for travellers on this continent.
What are the airlines expansion plans in East Africa and the rest of the world?
As countries around different parts of our network ease their entry restrictions, we are working hard to scale up our operations as an active response to the spike in travel demand, which includes our gateways in East Africa. Adding more flights and increasing capacity makes it easier for our customers to connect to and through Dubai to our network of over 120 destinations. In addition, we’ve restored full pre-pandemic capacity to over 30 cities on over 270 flights and have fine-tined our schedules as demand proliferates for international leisure and business travel.
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