The management of Uganda Airlines has explained that its Airbus, which was sighted at an airport in Seattle, USA, was chartered by a private client.
Several people took pictures of the airbus in the US, wondering what it was doing in the country’s airspace given that the Uganda’s national carrier does not operate any scheduled flights to the country.
The plane sighted in Seattle was Airbus A330-800 neo with registration code 5X-NIL. It reportedly flew from Entebbe to Keflavik, Iceland in a flight time of 10 hours 42 minutes. Then it flew from Keflavik to Seattle in a flight time of 7 hours and 28 minutes on Friday.
But according to Uganda Airlines Chief Executive Officer Jenifer Bamuturaki, their plane was in the USA, having been chartered for the flight.
“It was chartered. We operated to Seattle. It was a charter, by our client…we do charters by the way. We have been doing it since 2020, after lockdown we started again. We are never at liberty to reveal who our clients are,” she is quoted as saying by URN.
“As long as the Airbus is still on the ground, as we work on the routes it should do on schedule, the possible way to keep them off the ground is by charters,” she adds.
She also refused to divulge details of the cost of the chartered flight. “That is our private stuff. I wonder if anyone calls KQ to find out what charter they did and what the cost is,” she is quoted as saying by URN.