Girma Wake Exposes How Uganda Airlines Lost Control of Its Own Operations

Uganda Airlines is operating without its own aircraft hangar, full-fledged maintenance facility or catering department, leaving the state-owned carrier heavily dependent on outside providers as it struggles with grounded aircraft and persistent losses, Acting Chief Executive Officer Girma Wake told lawmakers.

Girma made the disclosure during appearances on Thursday and Friday before Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises, or COSASE, which is examining the airline’s operations and the findings of the Auditor General’s report for the 2024/25 financial year.

“The airline did not have a catering department. We are dependent on others to do catering,” Girma said. “The airline did not have full-fledged ground handling. Yes, we created a ground-services department, but we are using the warehouses of others. We are not self-sufficient.”

Girma said the absence of an airline-owned hangar had prevented Uganda Airlines from developing an independent maintenance operation, forcing it to rely on service providers outside the country.

“As an airline, we should have a hangar where we can maintain our airplanes. We have no hangar to maintain our airplanes,” he said. “We talk of a maintenance organisation without a maintenance facility.”

The airline relies partly on maintenance organisations in France and South Africa for its Airbus A330 aircraft, according to Girma, who said dependence on external providers was particularly risky in Africa because there are relatively few licensed maintenance organisations compared with Europe.

Uganda Airlines has since begun restructuring its operations and plans to bring maintenance, ground handling, catering and other services in-house gradually. The strategy includes constructing a hangar, acquiring maintenance equipment and training additional Ugandan technicians. The airline has also said it wants to build its own cargo-handling capacity.

Girma told lawmakers that the board had approved a new organisational structure, including a chief customer services position and a central planning function intended to coordinate fleet, staffing, infrastructure and capital requirements.

“Now we have a proper planning organisation that will say: this airline is here today; five years from today, it will be here,” Girma said. “These are the number of people it requires, the infrastructure the airline requires and the capital requirement.”

“All these have to be planned. It cannot be done casually. If you do it casually, you will have a casual problem,” he added. “We are trying to structure it in such a way that it will stand the pressure of the market.”

The infrastructure gaps have come under greater scrutiny following engine problems that grounded a substantial part of the airline’s fleet. Girma said earlier this month that two Airbus A330s and one CRJ900 had been grounded, affecting nearly 60 percent of the carrier’s passenger capacity and forcing it to lease aircraft to maintain services.

During the parliamentary hearing, Girma rejected suggestions that the aircraft had been bought old or were inherently defective.

“You bought the best airplanes. You did not buy useless airplanes,” he said. “The A330 is an excellent airplane by all standards. The CRJs are very good airplanes.”
He said seven years was a relatively young age for both aircraft types, although one of the CRJ engines had failed earlier than expected, possibly because of operational or climatic conditions.

For the A330s, however, Girma said the main problem arose from Uganda Airlines’ failure to meet its contractual payment obligations to engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce.

“On the A330, the issue was contractual. We contracted engine maintenance, engine-part provision—everything—to Rolls-Royce,” he said. “Unfortunately, since we were not regular in our payment, Rolls-Royce cancelled that.”

“If they did not cancel it, it would have been their responsibility to fix these engines,” Girma added. “It is not that the airplane was bad. It is not that the engine was bad. It is the contractual obligation that we did not fulfil which caused us a problem.”

Girma said inadequate working capital had forced the airline to choose which obligations to settle as they fell due, resulting in some Rolls-Royce payments being missed and the manufacturer withdrawing parts and maintenance services.

The operational problems are unfolding against a difficult financial position. The Auditor General’s latest report shows Uganda Airlines recorded a net loss of Shs230.816 billion in the financial year ended June 2025, only marginally lower than the Shs231.584 billion loss recorded a year earlier. The carrier lost Shs323.598 billion in 2022/23.

The airline’s debt ratio increased from 20.86 percent to 29.92 percent, while accumulated arrears rose by Shs64.012 billion to Shs235.70 billion. The report also said the Ugandan government had injected Shs1.984 trillion into the carrier, although only Shs200 million had been formally recognised as share capital.

Revenue increased by 19.2 percent during the 2024/25 financial year, but rising fuel, aircraft leasing, maintenance and supplier costs largely offset the growth. The loss narrowed by just Shs768 million, or 0.33 percent, from the previous year.

Chief Finance Officer Allan Joel Kyeyune told the committee that passenger services generate about 87 percent of the airline’s revenue, while cargo contributes approximately 11 percent.
“There is no airline in the world that will be profitable relying on only two revenue streams, majorly passenger and cargo,” Kyeyune said.

He said Uganda Airlines had accumulated about 78 million US dollars in debt over three years because internally generated revenue and government contributions had not been sufficient to meet its obligations. Debt had been growing by an average of about 60 percent annually, he added.

The present Uganda Airlines began commercial operations on August 28, 2019, restoring a national carrier nearly 18 years after the original Uganda Airlines was liquidated in May 2001 following years of financial difficulties. The revived carrier owns four CRJ900 regional jets and two Airbus A330-800 wide-body aircraft.

The airline is also expanding its network and has ordered four Boeing 737-8 aircraft and four Boeing 787-9s. The first 737s are expected in 2032, followed by the 787s in 2033. In the interim, management plans to dry-lease smaller aircraft to strengthen regional services and feed passengers into its long-haul network.

Girma took control of Uganda Airlines in February 2026 after President Yoweri Museveni directed that then-chief executive Jenifer Bamuturaki step aside immediately. In his directive, Museveni cited “current leadership and management weaknesses” and appointed Girma as a consultant, adviser and acting chief executive to work with the board while a substantive CEO was recruited.

Bamuturaki had led the airline since July 2022 after serving in an acting capacity. Her contract had been due to expire in July 2026, but Museveni ordered her immediate handover to Girma and directed the board to arrange any payments due to her. She appeared alongside the current management before COSASE to respond to matters covering her tenure.

Girma is an Ethiopian aviation veteran who began his career at Ethiopian Airlines in 1965. He served as the airline’s chief executive from 2004 to 2011, chaired RwandAir between 2012 and 2017, and returned to Ethiopian Airlines as a board member in 2018 before becoming board chairman in 2022, a position he held until 2023.

Although his initial acting appointment was expected to run until July 2026, Girma remains in charge of the Ugandan carrier. Uganda Airlines continues to list him as its acting chief executive and a member of its board.