Uganda National Airline starts direct flights to Ghana | Qatar Airways is sending pilots to work in Rwanda
Uganda Airlines Continues Its Expansion towards the West African region.
The Ugandan national airline is launching a new route between Entebbe and Accra, which flies from October 27, 2026 onwards.
There will however be stopovers in Lagos, Nigeria, either way.
The Uganda Airlines intends to be operating four flights per week.
The route will be operated using a Boeing 737-800 leased from Ethiopian Airlines.
This opening marks Accra’s entry into the carrier’s network and strengthens its presence in West Africa, where Uganda Airlines already serves Lagos and Abuja.
The airline is thus pursuing its regional development strategy, with the ambition of making Entebbe a hub connecting East Africa, West Africa, and international markets more extensively.
In another development, Rwandair is getting pilots from Qatar.
Qatari pilots getting cockpit jobs in Kigali
Reports have that a group of Qatar Airways A330 pilots are being offered a voluntary short-term secondment opportunity with RwandAir
Apparently, Qatar Airways has just retired its passenger Airbus A330 fleet, which made up 7 percent of capacity at the airline as of early 2026.
In fairness, these planes were already near retirement before the war started, so this is hardly the most drastic move.
For that matter, the planes were actually supposed to be retired years ago, but were kept due to delivery delays on other aircraft, so the airline needed them to meet demand.
Qatar Airways also started leasing four additional A330s from Oman Air last year, but the planes never actually entered service.
Over the past couple of decades, Qatar Airways had 45 Airbus A330s, including 29 A330-200s and 16 A330-300s.
They started to be delivered in 2002, but were phased out over time. With the A330s being retired, one can’t help but wonder how much life the small A380 fleet will have left
In a statement, a Qatar Airways spokesperson said the airline regularly reviews its fleet, and “retiring older aircraft and introducing newer, more efficient aircraft as they are delivered” is a normal practice.
It was also pointed out how the airline expects to receive 138 new aircraft over the next five years.
With the airline having an excess of pilots, Qatar Airways has also given some pilots the opportunity to work at RwandAir, which has longstanding ties with Qatar Airways.
RwandAir even acquired an ex-Qatar Airways A330 earlier this year.
Regarding pilots moving from Qatar Airways to RwandAir, the airline spokesperson said “a group of Qatar Airways A330 pilots are being offered a voluntary short-term secondment opportunity with RwandAir.”