LEADERSHIP reports that before now, air connectivity between the two countries took 10 hours but has been reduced to three and a half hours as Uganda airlines debuts in Nigeria.
“This flight was exactly three and a half hours. We cut out close to 14 hours from Lagos to Entebbe so that means that if you are flying to Mumbai, Dubai, you don’t need to fly 10 hours just come to Entebbe in three and a half hours and be in Dubai in another four and half hours. If you are going to Mumbai, three and half hours to Entebbe, one hour in transit and another 6 hours into Mumbai so we have closed the gap between Eastern Africa countries and the West,” she said.
“The importance of air transportation is that it remains the major veritable means of connecting the people of Africa and enhancing trade. Air transportation will do well in Africa with its population of over 1.37 billion and urged African nations to leverage the opportunity of Single Africa Air Transport Market to attain the 2065 Africa Agenda.”
While speaking, the minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, said the Ugandan Airline’s operation was an opportunity to bridge West Africa and East Africa air transport hiccups. “The journey for Uganda Airlines to commence flight services to Nigeria it would be recalled started on 9th October 2002 in Kampala, Uganda when the two respective Ministers of both countries responsible for Civil Aviation initiated an Air Services Agreement with the ultimate desire of bringing about a direct flight from Entebbe, Uganda to Lagos.