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While it’s not getting a lot of attention outside of Africa, Uganda Airlines is having quite the crisis, as the airline has been an operational disaster for weeks now (thanks to @MeenzMev for flagging this). What’s actually going on here, and what’s causing these problems?
Uganda Airlines faces major issues after A330 grounded
Uganda Airlines is the small national carrier of Uganda, which launched operations (in its current form) in 2019. The airline has a small fleet of just two Airbus A330-800neos, four Bombardier CRJ-900s, and one leased Airbus A320.
The carrier uses its A330s for select routes, including from Entebbe (EBB) to Dubai (DXB), Lagos (LOS), London (LGW), and Mumbai (BOM). Back on December 8, 2025, the A330 with the registration code 5X-NIL operated a flight from Entebbe to Lagos, and it has been grounded there ever since. It’s not entirely clear what’s going on, though presumably there’s a maintenance issue.
As you might expect, when you have a schedule published that requires two A330s, and half of that fleet becomes grounded, you have major issues. The thing is, it sounds like the carrier has been handling this situation absolutely horribly. The other A330 has the registration code 5X-CRN, and it has continued operations as much as possible. However, it can’t fly two routes at once.
So not only have a bunch of flights been canceled, but the other A330 has been operating flights with absolutely massive delays. There seems to be no effort to maintain any schedule consistency, but instead, the plane is just trying to operate a limited number of flights with huge delays.
For example, just look at the flights in recent days, per Flightradar24 data. Flights that are supposed to arrive at 11:40AM arrive at 8:15PM. Flights that are supposed to arrive at 8:20PM arrive at 4:36AM. And those are the lucky people who actually get to fly on (roughly) the day they were scheduled to.
The scenes coming out of airports are wild, with many videos of passengers essentially rioting in terminals, out of frustration.
Some people, on the other hand, have a more positive attitude. 😉
Uganda Airlines seems ill equipped to handle this situation
Obviously when you’re a small airline, it’s an operational catastrophe when one of of your two long haul planes is grounded. I think we can all understand that this can happen, though, as safety is paramount.
As I understand it, the biggest source of frustration is Uganda Airlines’ horrible management in this situation. It’s as if the airline didn’t make any plans for what would happen if one of these planes were grounded on short notice. The issue is that passengers are showing up at the airport ready to fly, only to find out that their flight is delayed by days, with no real notice of delays.
There are reports of abandoned check-in counters, and staff just generally not knowing what’s going on, and not having any information about when flights will actually depart. Uganda Airlines’ only social media presence during this crisis has been to wish people a Merry Christmas.
Unfortunately I can’t say that I’m surprised that this is happening at Uganda Airlines. Africa is a continent with so much potential for aviation, and there are a few incredibly well run airlines. However, it’s also the continent with the highest number of poorly run, government owned airlines, where prestige and nepotism are the priorities, over reliability and profitability.
Uganda Airlines has been hemorrhaging money since launching. The airline has accumulated losses of over $250 million since launch, and has lost a staggering $67 million in the last financial year. Sheesh, that means the airline is basically losing $10 million per plane per year. It’s simply horrible.
I can’t say I’m surprised by these results, given the company’s management. In early 2022, Uganda Airlines fired the company’s previous CEO, who was under investigation for allegations of financial mismanagement, collusion, and nepotism in staff recruitment, among other things.
The current CEO has also been under scrutiny over her qualifications and job performance. When the previous CEO was fired, PwC was allegedly hired to find a new CEO for the airline, and the government gave a list of qualifications for the role, and the CEO who was chosen didn’t meet any of the qualifications.
Prior to joining Uganda Airlines, she worked as the director of sales and marketing at two different hotels in Uganda (the Sheraton Kampala and Golden Tulip Kampala), and from there she was somehow appointed to the role of commercial director at Uganda Airlines.
I mean, if she started as the commercial director, and the airline has racked up a quarter billion dollars in losses, well…
Bottom line
Uganda Airlines has been an operational mess for around three weeks now, after one of the carrier’s two A330s was grounded. While that’s obviously going to have big operational impacts, what’s even worse is how the airline has handled this.
Virtually all passenger accounts suggest that communication has been a disaster, with people receiving no notices of cancelations, arriving at the airport to find unstaffed check-in counters, and then being told their flight will be delayed by days. It makes you wonder about the company’s management…
What do you make of this Uganda Airlines meltdown?
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