On April 22, 2020, the national carrier, the Uganda Airlines was grounded after President Museveni directed that all passenger flights in and outside Uganda be cancelled with immediate effect, in order not to import Coronavirus (COVID-19) infections.
This meant that the entire Ugandan Airlines fleet of four Bombardier planes would cease operations as per the President’s directives.
Most of the company’s employees went home, but the technical staff are still hard at work to keep our birds in shape so that they are ready to hit the skies in case flights resume.
Eng. Ephraim Bagenda, the Director of Maintenance and Engineering at Uganda Airlines has said that storage maintenance is required so that when you are required to return the aircraft into service, the aircraft will not have deteriorated due to non-usage, weather and things like that.
“Every seven days, we open up the aircraft, run the engines, do system checks to make sure that everything is operational. If there is any defect it is cleared, ready for the return of aircraft to service when the time comes,” Bagenda said.
Cornwell Muleya, the Chief Executive Officer of Uganda Airlines said that there are new measures the company will take when they resume operations and these include disinfecting the aircraft before and after flights and sanitization for pilots, flight officers and all the crew before and after flights.