The high expectations raised by Gulf Air’s return to Entebbe on December 5 last year have been dashed barely two months into its return, with the shock announcement of the airline’s closure of the route effective February 21, as the airline cuts costs and shift resources to core markets and those with more promising forecasts and outlook.
“Gulf Air suspends flights to Entebbe, Uganda- updated at 12:30pm Bahrain local time,” read a simple notice on the airline’s Twitter page, www.twitter.com/GulfAir. Civil Aviation Authority’s Corporate Affairs Officer, Vianney Luggya, told The Independent on February 10 that the aviation regulatory agency had not been informed of the matter. But a tours and travel agent who preferred not to be named confirmed that the airline would indeed stop flying Entebbe on the above date and passengers after Feb 21 were to be re-routed to other airlines.
The decision was meant to help mitigate the effects of the deteriorating domestic situation in the airline’s home base of Bahrain and the unstable global business environment.
Entebbe’s termination was soon followed with an announcement of the suspension until further notice of the anticipated launch of direct Gulf Air flights to Juba, South Sudan, which had been expected this month.
Travellers in Juba, where three weekly flights had been planned were disappointed.
“We are a lot disappointed about Gulf Air not coming anytime soon to Juba,” said a tour operator with close links to South Sudan aviation in a blog on the online tours and travel publication, eTurbo News. “It would have given us more opportunities to fly without needing to go through Nairobi or Entebbe.”
“Right now Ethiopian and Kenya Airways are the only airlines coming here and we had hoped that Gulf Air would connect us to the world,” the aviation official said.
The official said Egypt Air had tried, “but failed us by first coming through Khartoum, which has been treating our people very badly when there are delays, then it also pulled out.”
“We really hope some other big airlines will consider coming direct to Juba.”
Exit Entebbe
With 4 flights a week, Gulf Air’s exit closes a valuable option for visitors coming to Uganda from across the Gulf Air network and travellers from Ugan da flying to Europe, the Gulf, India and beyond, via Bahrain.
Circumstances in Bahrain are said to have taken their toll on forecasts and route projections, forcing the airline to halt flights to Entebbe. Industry experts say that the delay of oil and gas developments in the region and the current economic slow-down had also skewed forecasts for the airline and caused it to reconsider the cost of its operations to Entebbe and Juba, as well as a number of other routes around the world which may be cancelled.
However, Gulf Air’s daily flights to and from Nairobi will continue and it is understood that options are being explored between Gulf Air and Air Uganda and others to enter into interline agreements so that travellers who were instant converts on Gulf Air can continue to fly with them from Entebbe to Nairobi.
For other carriers at Entebbe Airport, Gulf Air’s exit may be welcome news as competition – which increased last year with the entry of Gulf Air, Qatar and Rwanda Air - has undermined their margins, even as big regional projects like oil exploitation delay to take off and the tourism industry is hit by political instability.
Gulf Air was welcomed back to Ugandan skies with great fanfare on December 5 last year, 11 years after it halted flights in late 2000, when the airline opted out of East Africa as a result of unfavourable market conditions. It launched services with a 136-passenger, four tonne, capacity Airbus A-320. Commercial Manager Karim Makhlouf said at the time that the airline was drawn by the anticipated oil exploitation, regional growth prospects and growing business traffic between Uganda and Dubai.
However, some industry experts say it was not surprising that the airline never really took off in Entebbe as conditions were not optimum for it. For one, Gulf Air launched in December, just a month behind another Gulf counterpart – Qatar Airways – and the market failed to absorb the customer demands of both at the same time. To make it worse, political unrest broke out in Bahrain about the same time as it was launched, overshadowing the airline’s promotional efforts and scaring most international travellers from the Bahrain stop-over, the airline’s hub.
However, some industry players argue that Gulf Air’s exit contests the expectation that increasing the number of airlines at Entebbe Airport would break the dominance of traditional giants like Emirates, KLM, British Airways and Brussels Airlines, leading to improved services and lower fares.
Flight traffic at Entebbe Airport has grown sharply over the past 5 years, that industry players are worried it is straining modest facilities and safety arrangements.
Counting Gulf Air, the airport currently hosts 21 scheduled passenger and 4 cargo airlines. Of these four – Qatar Airlines, Rwanda Air, Turkish Airlines and Gulf Air - were launched in the past year.
The number of commercial aircraft landing and taking off at the airport grew from 5,600 in December 1991 to 23,000 in December 2010. Passenger traffic has increased from 720,000 passengers in 2007 to an estimated of over 1.5million in 2011.
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