UGANDA AIRLINES: OUTSOURCED MANAGEMENT IS THE WINNING FORMULA.
‘A bitter-sweet experience…’, is how
Mzee Mashurubu reacts to the current ‘storm’ brewing inside Uganda Airlines,
our revived national carrier. In his analysis, the airline was revived at the
right time and the wrong time at the same time! The right time because with
Ugandan agriculture moving towards the commercial angle, albeit at a zigzag
snail pace, no better a strategy than a national carrier for the export of our
fresh produce to the global market. This in light of our neighbours, whose
airlines were prioritising their home-grown exports in allocating cargo space
and schedule, with Ugandan ones coming in as a by-the-way, at exorbitant rates.
Actually, Ugandan export cargo was subsidising the export cargo of the
neighbouring airlines: the discount offered to their home farmers would be
recouped from the higher charges on Ugandan exports. The wrong time: because our economy, with its
high rate of formal unemployment, is besieged with cronyism and related vices
when it comes to employment…more so in such ‘prestigious’ organisations as
Uganda Airlines.
The winning formula, argues Mzee
Mashurubu, is outsourcing the management of Uganda Airlines to a professional
management team. Team and not company or consulting firm. Team of experts drawn
from different countries (including Uganda: we still have the golden era
parastatal leaders), hired as individuals but contracted severally, all
recruited by an independent reputable corporate governance firm. Notable key
positions is Team Leader, who plays Chief Executive Officer, Commercial
Director, Technical Director, Director Finance and Director Human Resource.
With no Board and reporting directly to the Minister of Works and Transport
with a dotted line to the Head of State, the team will be above local political
fray and influence, with a mandate to grow the airline to profitability within five years. Drawing from the example
of Kenya Airways, Mzee holds that the presence of KLM top management plus other
directors recruited from outside the airline and the industry accounted for the
turn-around of Kenya Airways from a limping parastatal to a respectable
industry player. The problems that befell the airline after the initial team left,
have been attributed to ‘external influence’ in the formation of the successor management
that led to the veering off, which is
being rectified.
Cardinal among the key result areas of
the expert team at Uganda Airlines will
be growing a profitable portfolio of cargo transport to regional and
continental markets. Kinshasa in DR Congo only needs medium range cargo
hauliers and Uganda will not even produce enough to meet the demand,
particularly meat and dairy products. Equally lucrative is relief food and
other materials transportation to refugee camps and settlements( having failed
to stop the generating of refugees, at least let us pick spoils from the dark
scar); and with East African airspace soon becoming domestic, another cash-cow
is this budget airline of the Ryan Air class. Air travel regionally remains
costly because the air ticket component that goes into ‘local’ charges is so
high, since regional flights are still treated as international flights, not
domestic. And to stem the financing challenges, besides statutory allocations,
Mzee adds that tourist arrival fees at Entebbe International Airport should
have 50% (25 US dollars) go directly into the Uganda Airlines operation
overheads budget. With Covid easing and tourism picking, this will cushion the
airline against financial shocks as it moves towards break-even and
profitability. At the end of its term, the expert team will have groomed a
domestic leadership and management corps, from CEO to janitor that will take
The Flying Crane to even greater heights.