Uganda’s second Airbus A330neo, the newest addition to the growing fleet, finally arrived three days ago and this will boost the connectivity to the Middle East, Europe and Asia from Entebbe to cater for the long haul travel destinations.
This is the second aircraft of this kind received after the Uganda Airlines received its first new Airbus on 23rd December 2020. Note that with the arrival of the second AirbusA330neo, this takes the total number of aircrafts in the fleet to 6 having already secured four CRJ900 Bombardiers that fly within the East and South African regions.
This is an important step taken by the government of Uganda to revive the national carrier. Note that this plays an important role in national identity as well as nation building. Since time memorial, national airlines have been portrayed as important national symbols and spread the feeling of nationhood.
The national airline symbolizes the nation the same way as national anthem or the national flag and can join people across the country as imagined political community.
Frank Zappa states; “You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.”
Some people have always been put off to travel to Uganda because of the cost for the air ticket, however, with the emerging national carrier, this is likely to go down because of the prevalence of the direct connection to the destinations mostly in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
