In case you missed it the talk burning the wires was about the new rate of a flight on Entebbe-Nairobi route.
A
same day return flight will now set you back about sh1.6m compared to
sh800,000 at the beginning of the year. Kenya Airways once again
monopolises the route following the suspension of Air Uganda last month.
The route has reverted to its status as one of the most expensive routes per kilometer in the world.
How did we find ourselves here?
The folding of Uganda Airlines more than a decade ago, set the stage
for Kenya Airways to set up a monopoly on the route. The way these
things work is that countries have bilateral air agreements, which means
they license designated carriers from either country to fly into their
respective airports. Other airlines cannot fly passengers between the
two countries unless both agree to it.
So
over the last several years Air Uganda has been our designated carrier
and Kenya Airways served as our eastern neighbour's. so when Air Uganda
stopped flying Kenya Airways increased the number of frequencies to
Uganda -- to the extent that they could manage, to fill the gap.
Maybe
they would have maintained the cost of a flight out of the goodness of
their hearts, but "the pride of Africa " has been suffering losses in
recent years and their management will only be too glad to earn a few
more dollars wherever they can.
As a nation we are in a rather precarious position with no bargaining power to speak of.
Uganda
and Kenya are each others largest trading partners. We both house huge
numbers of our respective populations for historical reasons, more so
than either of us do with Tanzania. We travel back and forth on holiday,
to school or hospital. Granted that most of our exchanges are by road,
but the Entebbe-Nairobi route carries enough of this interaction to
make the route one of Kenya Airways major cash cows. So the route has to
remain open.
The
possibility of allowing another airline to be our designated carrier
along the route will be fiercely opposed by the Kenyans. Ethiopia
Airways tried after Uganda Airlines went down but made no headway. In
the early part of the 2000s East Africa Airlines tried to break Kenya
Airways stranglehold on the route but the resistance was such that it
was forced to shut down and put its sister business, ENHAS cargo
handling at a distinct disadvantage when Kenya Airways withheld its
business.
It's
times like this that we are really exposed to our over reliance on
Kenya. The other times of course is when there is interference in the
traffic between our border and the Kenyan coast, which route again
dominates or land communication options.
The
East African Community is doing a good job in raising our sense of
interdependence on more tangible basis than political rhetoric, but even
there we can see how the field is far from even.
Some
saber rattling by our leaders may come in handy in redressing some of
this unfairness, but the more sustainable solution is for us to
diversify our communication options in the short run, but in the long
run to grow our economic clout to the point where we can enjoy real
bargaining power.
Of
course there is the group, that jumps out of the wood work every so
often, to use such times as a justification to push for our own airline.
Yes. If we had our own viable airline the Kenyans attitude would be
very different. Unfortunately starting and building an airline is not
done with a snap of the fingers. And the opportunity costs of sustaining
one in terms of lost investment in other infrastructure and social
services make it difficult to justify. Ask Rwanda.
We
shall not examine too closely how Kenya Airways established its
advantage but clearly their dominance on the route is not about to go
away.
It seems that we are in for a highly priced route, at least until Air Uganda extricates itself from its mess. If it can.
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