It will become easy to travel to Uganda from Saudi Arabia, as Saudi Airlines has announced its new flight route in February. The SkyTeam alliance will start this service from Riyadh’s King Khalid International (RUH) base and end at Entebbe (EBB). Entebbe is around 36kms far from Kampala, which is the capital of Uganda.
The inaugural flight reached Entebbe at 7 am, carrying 300 passengers on board with an Airbus 330-300. This flight was welcomed with a gun salute to celebrate the moment. This airline is the first one to connect Saudi Arabia and Uganda directly. Many business persons and tourists travel between these two countries for employment and another purpose.
This 3,614kms route will start on Feb 2 and be available twice a week. On the outbound leg, the flight will take 5 hr 5 min from Riyadh, and the reaching duration will be 4 hr 40 min. Initially, Saudia planned to connect these two countries last September, but the plan could not materialise. Finally, however, the airline got successful now. As a result, Entebbe has now become the 4th place in East Africa which joins Mauritius (MRU), Addis Ababa (ADD), and Nairobi (NBO).
This new connection will surely give strength to Saudi Arabia and Uganda relations. This includes the signing of the memorandum in October.
As per the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson, Mr Vianney Luggya, Saudi Airlines will be the 17th airline to work in Entebbe. As per him, with the arrival of any new airlines, the confidence of the country’s aviation increases. Therefore, he expects that there will be a growth in the passengers’ traffic because of this new airline, which is steadily increasing per year. As per Uganda Civil Aviation Authority, the Middle East contributes around 21% of passenger traffic at Entebbe Airport.
Abubaker Jeje Odongo, Uganda’s foreign minister, has decided to import many products like fruits, vegetables, milk and spices from Uganda because of this new airline. He also requested the Middle East government to look for new opportunities in Uganda related to the mining, agriculture and tourism sectors.
It is also reported that both the countries have undergone an agreement for the rights protection of Ugandan migrants’ workers employed in Saudi Arabia. It has been calculated that there are around 80,000 Ugandans who work in Saudi Arabia, and most of them are maids.
As per the information given by Sabre Market Intelligence, in 2019, the passenger rush from Saudi Arabia and Uganda was around 23,000, in which Dubai (DXB), Cairo (CAI) and Addis Ababa was the biggest connecting market.
Once Saudia starts the RUH-EBB route, it will be the 3rd new route that will connect Uganda and other Middle East destinations. On Oct 4, Uganda airlines came up with flights from Entebbe to Dubai (DXB) and vice versa, while Air Arabia came up with flights between Sharjah (SHJ)-Entebbe on Oct 12.
In COVID-19, the number of passengers at Entebbe has decreased to half because of travel restrictions. As per the data noted, in 2019, the traffic was 1.98 million, and with the hit of the pandemic, the number decreased to 600,000 in 2020. However, in 2021 the numbers experienced a little bit of a surge and reached 940,000.
In 2020, the import of Uganda from Saudi Arabia was around $274.5 million, while the gulf used to import goods from East African countries whose cost was around $5.2million.
About Saudi Airlines
Saudi Airlines is a flag carrier of Saudi Arabia. The operational base of this airline is at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. Secondary hubs are King Fahd International Airport in Dammam and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. If talked about revenue, this airline is the third-largest in the Middle East and is behind Emirates and Qatar Airways. The airline operates both international and domestic flights and covers over 100 Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and North America.
In 2012, Saudia joined hands with the SKYTEAM alliance. The company has codeshare partnerships with Garuda Indonesia, Korean Airlines, Czech Airlines, KLM, Etihad Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Middle East Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Air Europa and Oman Air. The airline has completed 74 years of operation and is a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO). In 2018, this airline flew with 34 million passengers to around 90+ destinations over the continent.
Saudia is currently enjoying its accelerated transformation, thus revitalising its airline business from operations to fleet management and network growth. In 2017, Saudia was awarded the ‘World’s Most Improved Airline of 2017’ by Skytrax. This award is given to Saudia for its growth and improvement in various categories in a year.
In 2018, Saudia partnered with ABB FIA Formula E Championship for the all-electric series.
