FLEET - Uganda Airlines resumes in-house widebody operations

Uganda Airlines (UR, Entebbe) has confirmed to ch-aviation that it has returned one of its two A330-800N widebodies to service after it had been in maintenance for the past two months.

ADS-B data shows that 5X-NIL (msn 1977) landed at Dubai International from Entebbe on April 17. Its sistership, 5X-CRN (1979), remains grounded in the Ugandan capital.

On February 20, Uganda Airlines announced that both A330s were temporarily out of service due to unscheduled maintenance. This led to the suspension of its long-haul routes to London Gatwick and Mumbai International. The halting of its Dubai service followed on February 28, after the outbreak of the US/Israeli war on Iran.

On March 7, the airline announced it had made a wet-lease arrangement with Ethiopian Airlines that enabled it to resume its long-haul services. Ethiopian's B787-8, ET-ASI (msn 38758), took over the Gatwick and Mumbai routes, and continued to operate them up to at least April 19, according to ADS-B data.

Uganda Airlines also continues to wet lease an A320-200, OY-RUY (msn 6733), from DAT - Danish Air Transport, which operates regional routes from Entebbe, including to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo, Lagos, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta, Harare International, Kinshasa N'Djili, and Bujumbura

CH Aviation