In June, at State House and in the presence of President Museveni, Uganda Airlines signed off on the largest aircraft acquisition since its revival.
The national carrier committed to purchasing 10 new Boeing aircraft in a deal government values at Shs3.7 trillion, or about $985m.
The package comprises eight passenger aircraft and two freighters.
For an airline that resumed operations in 2019 with four CRJ900s and two Airbus A330-800neos, and currently serves 17 destinations across Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia, the order represents a significant shift in scale.
Interim chief executive officer Girma Wake said the passenger fleet will comprise a mix of Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 737 MAX aircraft, with the first phase comprising four widebody aircraft.
On the cargo side, the deal introduces a Boeing 767 freighter and a Boeing 737 converted freighter (BCF), marking Uganda Airlines’ entry into dedicated cargo operations.
The acquisition also represents a change in supplier strategy. Until now, Uganda Airlines’ widebody fleet has been exclusively Airbus.
In December 2025, Parliament approved Shs422.26b, about $119m, for two Boeing 787s, one Boeing freighter and two mid-range Airbus aircraft. Six months later, Airbus was absent from the latest tranche.
A Uganda Airlines spokesperson, responding to aviation publication ch-aviation, put it simply: ‘Things change.’
Standardising more of the fleet around one manufacturer could offer operational advantages, including common pilot type ratings, shared spare parts and streamlined maintenance procedures.
State House said in a post on X that the expansion would ‘strengthen trade, tourism, and investment, and position Uganda as a key regional aviation hub.’
Boeing Vice President of Sales Anbessie Yitbarek said the partnership would also provide technical expertise, training and capacity building to support the airline’s growth.
Beyond aviation
Government is presenting the timing of the acquisition as part of a broader economic strategy rather than simply an aviation investment.
Uganda imports roughly 80 percent of its goods from Asia while exporting horticultural products, fish and minerals, some of which move most efficiently by air.
Without dedicated freighters in its existing fleet, much of that cargo business has been handled by Ethiopian Airlines, Qatar Airways and Emirates.
The planned freighters are intended to help Uganda Airlines capture some of that traffic and support trade, tourism, investment and cargo transportation under Uganda Vision 2040.
On the passenger side, additional aircraft would allow the airline to expand to destinations including Accra, Jeddah, Riyadh and Cape Town, while pursuing a longer-term target of between 32 and 35 destinations over the next decade.
Former Finance Minister Matia Kasaija told Parliament that Uganda Airlines had already contributed to lowering regional airfares and that additional capitalisation to acquire aircraft and open new passenger and cargo routes was a priority for the 2025/26 financial year.
But the scale of the investment has also attracted scrutiny.
The Shs3.7 trillion commitment sits within a broader Shs6.92 trillion transport infrastructure envelope for 2026/27.
In Parliament, opposition MPs have raised concerns, recalling the acquisition of Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft that were already being phased out globally.
They argued that supplementary funding requests should meet the standard of being ‘unabsorbable, unavoidable, and unforeseeable.’
Works and Transport Minister Fred Byamukama defended the investment. ‘It is a very expensive project, but the President said that we have no other option. We need to build our own airline,’ he said.
Uganda Airlines argues that without sufficient scale, commercial viability will remain difficult. Leased aircraft can be expensive and unpredictable, while owned aircraft, if properly utilised, give the carrier greater control over schedules and costs. And utilisation is at the centre of the airline’s immediate strategy.
Building traffic before aircraft arrive
According to Girma, Uganda Airlines is charting a two-year course focused on improving connectivity and using aviation to drive trade.
One element of that strategy is extending the Lagos service to Accra, a market he describes as strategically important.
‘Accra is one of the cities that is really developing very fast, and that is where the African trade center is today. So it will expand the market reach of Uganda,’ he says.
‘There are a lot of products that Uganda produces that will be really needed in Ghana. And there are products that we need from Ghana. So the trade advantage is there.’
The routing adds approximately one hour beyond Lagos. Girma says it would be ‘the shortest route except for the direct flight of South African Airways’ and could help establish a corridor connecting South Africa and Ghana through Uganda.
He cites traffic associated with the Ashanti gold mines, including movement linked to South African companies, as an example of passengers who could potentially transit through Entebbe.
More broadly, the service would strengthen links between East and West Africa, giving Ugandan exporters of agricultural products, manufactured goods and services greater access to Ghana’s market while facilitating the movement of Ghanaian goods eastward.
Turning Entebbe into a connecting hub
The second pillar is the creation of what Girma describes as an ‘inter-bay hub’ at Entebbe International Airport.
For years, Uganda Airlines’ widebody services from London, Dubai and Mumbai have operated without fully coordinated onward regional connections.
The new scheduling model is intended to change that.
‘All the wide-body flights coming from outside will meet all the outgoing flights at inter-bay and interchange traffic between outgoing and incoming flights,’ Girma says.
The idea is to collect passengers from shorter regional sectors, from cities such as Kigali and Kinshasa, and feed them into long-haul services departing Entebbe.
The economics of the strategy are: expensive long-haul aircraft need to fly with as many seats occupied as possible.
‘You cannot go with an empty seat where it is most expensive. So, by building the structure for people to connect through Entebbe, we will improve the financial situation of the airline,’ Girma says, but also points to the difference in revenue economics between short- and long-haul flying.
‘Per hour, per hour revenue for a short sector is very high. For a long sector, it is very low.’
If the hub model works, its impact could extend beyond Uganda Airlines. Transit passengers could spend money in Uganda, cargo volumes through Entebbe could increase, and related sectors such as ground handling, catering and logistics could benefit.
Fleet constraints
Girma says the carrier’s finances had been affected after ‘almost 60 percent of our capacity was grounded because of an engine problem.’ ‘The two A330s were grounded. We managed to keep one of them flying,’ he says.
To maintain its schedule, Uganda Airlines has relied on leased aircraft, financed through the normal budgetary system of the Ministry of Finance.
Some relief is expected as aircraft return to service, but management sees leasing strategy as part of the longer-term solution.
The airline plans to pursue dry leases, longer-term arrangements under which Uganda Airlines would provide its own crews and maintenance rather than paying another operator to provide the entire service.
‘We lease an airplane for five years, six years. We use our own crew, we use our own maintenance,’ Girma says.
The economics, he argues, are compelling: ‘For one wet-lease airplane, you can get three dry-lease airplanes.’
The intention is to use the intervening years to build Uganda Airlines’ internal crew, engineering and maintenance capacity before the major fleet renewal begins.
That preparation matters because the newly ordered aircraft will not arrive immediately.
‘The first 737s are coming in 2032. The 787s, the wide-body, are coming in 2033,’ Girma says.
‘What we do between now and 2032 is what is going to help us build that traffic. We have to prepare the traffic now so that when these airplanes come, we have a ready market for it.’
The economics of expansion
Aviation analyst Sean Mendis, based in Malawi and with extensive experience in the African aviation industry, describes the 10-aircraft deal as a first step toward rebuilding the carrier.
But he points to an important institutional challenge: the long-term strategy is currently being driven by Girma, who is serving in an interim capacity and may no longer be in office by the time the new aircraft begin arriving from 2032.
For the plan to succeed, Mendis argues, Uganda Airlines will need institutional consistency that survives management changes.
He also points to concerns arising from the history of government appointments at the airline.
On financial sustainability, Mendis says developing a functioning hub-and-spoke operation at Entebbe will be critical. That will require cooperation between the airline, the airport authority and other service providers.
The carrier will also need disciplined network planning: schedules designed around efficient connections, carefully selected city pairs and markets with realistic prospects for commercial success.
Regional cooperation presents another challenge. East African carriers have historically struggled to work together closely enough to create seamless regional networks.
Frequency generates traffic
Girma rejects the assumption that increasing flight frequencies necessarily makes an airline’s operations more difficult.
His argument is the opposite: ‘frequency generates traffic.’ An airline operating once a week gives passengers limited flexibility. Daily services, by contrast, make the route more attractive and can stimulate additional demand.
He applies the same logic to Nigeria and Ghana. The two markets could eventually support separate services, he says, but for now the airline intends to develop them together until passenger and cargo volumes justify splitting the routes.
Aircraft choice is equally important. ‘If you operate with a narrow body to Nigeria, you will not make an impact,’ Girma says.
‘You have to operate with a wide body so that you take passengers, cargo and baggage together.’ His vision also extends beyond serving Uganda’s domestic market.
‘Uganda Airlines is not created to just fly Ugandans,’ he says. ‘Uganda Airlines is created to fly Ugandans as well as other people. It’s only then that this airline can grow.’
That thinking is reflected in an operating model that combines regional services, including daily flights to Kigali, with long-haul connections to London, Dubai and Mumbai.
The airline is also focusing on recruiting and training university graduates as it builds the workforce required for a larger operation.
Cargo: A new revenue line
The arrival of dedicated freighters would introduce an entirely new revenue stream for Uganda Airlines.
Perishable exports to the Gulf and Europe, together with growing e-commerce activity within East Africa, are among the markets being targeted.
Uganda Airlines argues that the expansion could support agriculture, tourism, minerals and services while giving Ugandan exporters greater control over access to international markets.
A larger fleet could also improve operational resilience. With more aircraft available, maintenance problems would be less likely to disrupt a significant share of the airline’s network.
That matters particularly for business travellers who depend on reliable departures to destinations such as Dubai and London.
Entebbe’s geographical position is also central to the hub proposition. A widebody aircraft departing for London or Mumbai could collect connecting passengers arriving from Juba, Kigali, Bujumbura and Goma, following a model similar to the one Ethiopian Airlines has successfully developed through Addis Ababa.
The risks
The expansion is ambitious, but several factors will determine whether it delivers the expected returns.
One is timing. Detailed delivery schedules have not been publicly disclosed, while Boeing continues to manage a substantial production backlog and the wider aviation industry faces supply-chain constraints.
Any significant aircraft delivery delays could affect planned route launches and expansion schedules.
Fuel presents another risk. Jet fuel remains one of the highest costs for airlines, and sustained price volatility could offset some of the savings expected from newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft.
Then there is competition. Ethiopian Airlines serves more than 130 destinations, while Kenya Airways, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Turkish Airlines already compete for East African passenger and connecting traffic.
Filling larger aircraft consistently will require competitive pricing, reliable connections, strong revenue management and potentially more codeshare and commercial partnerships.
Governance will also remain under scrutiny. Parliament is expected to monitor aircraft utilisation, load factors and maintenance contracts.
But Uganda’s history of controversy around major public procurements means demands for transparency are likely to follow the programme at every stage.
A bet on Uganda as a regional hub
The broader policy context is Uganda Vision 2040, which calls for the development of a competitive, export-oriented economy. Aviation is being positioned as one of the enablers of that ambition.
Following the Boeing signing, Uganda Airlines described the acquisition as ‘a strategic investment in Uganda’s future and a major step towards establishing Uganda as a leading aviation hub in the region.’ There is also a strategic argument about Uganda’s dependence on foreign hubs.
For decades, Ugandan travellers and exporters have relied heavily on Nairobi, Addis Ababa and Gulf hubs to reach international destinations. Building direct connectivity to markets such as London, Dubai and Mumbai reduces some of that dependence.
Boeing’s commitment to training and technical support could also expand Uganda’s pool of engineers, pilots and technicians. But aircraft alone will not create a hub. The next phase will depend on financing, network development and operational performance.
First, the acquisition commitment must be translated into contracts, down payments and export credit guarantees.
Second, Uganda Airlines must build enough passenger and cargo traffic ahead of the aircraft deliveries to justify the additional capacity.
Third, the airline must demonstrate that demand on routes such as London and Mumbai can be converted into sustainable revenue through pricing, partnerships, revenue management and operational reliability.
Uganda Airlines is making a calculation familiar to smaller carriers with ambitions to grow: that greater control of aircraft is necessary to control its commercial destiny, and that investment must come before returns.
The Boeing deal provides the prospect of long-haul widebodies, efficient narrowbody aircraft and the airline’s first dedicated freighters. It also adds a substantial financial commitment to the national balance sheet.
If the Entebbe hub functions as planned, if dry leasing helps build internal capability, and if Uganda Airlines develops sufficient traffic ahead of the 2032-2033 deliveries, Entebbe could emerge as a stronger alternative connecting point in East Africa.
If those pieces fail to come together, Uganda could find itself with a much larger fleet facing the same commercial challenges, only at a greater scale.
As Girma puts it: ‘The next two years will decide the future of this airline. If we do it right, the future is bright.’
For Uganda’s wider economy, doing it right would mean building an airline that carries not only passengers, but also the country’s products, trade and connections across the continent and beyond.