Airline enthusiasts were surprised to see a Ugandan airline A300-800 in Seattle. As a member of the club, I was surprised to find that some rich person in Uganda had such wealth as to charter a full A330 to fly to the United States for medical treatment. I wonder who this lucky person is and where he got this kind of wealth in a country where 90%of the population is poor. When will Africans invest on a first class health system that serves all instead of the rich flying overseas, a fit their poor cannot afford?
By Teddy Njoroge Kamau. HTBluff Associates.
Here is the story by simpleflying.com:
A distinctive Uganda Airlines Airbus A330 caught the attention of planespotters late last week when it operated an unusual charter flight from Entebbe to Seattle via Keflavik. The 8,832 mile (14,214 kilometer) globe-spanning trip took 18 plus hours to complete before factoring in the time spent on the ground in Keflavik.
It wasn’t only the unusual route that registered on people’s radar. Uganda Airlines operates the relatively unusual A330-800. The airline has two of them, and mid-evening on Thursday, February 3, 5X-NIL Mt Elgon pushed back at Entebbe for the 5,205 mile (8,376 kilometer) flight north to Iceland.
After flying for nearly 11 hours, the Airbus touched down in Keflavik in time for breakfast the next day. The jet spent around four hours on the ground there before taking off for Seattle. Flying time across to Seattle was seven and a half hours, with 5X-NIL landing before lunchtime on Friday.
The pair of A330-800s are new to Uganda Airlines and so far have mostly stuck to flying between Entebbe and Dubai. It’s not every day a Uganda Airlines aircraft makes it as far as Keflavik or Seattle.
Uganda Airlines Chief Executive officer Jenifer Bamuturaki told Ugandan media the plane was operating a charter flight. She didn’t say who was on the flight, but local media pointed to the Ugandan Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanya. Uganda’s Independent newspaper reports Mr Oulanya traveled to the United States for medical treatment.
BY ANDREW CURRAN
Source-https://simpleflying.com/
