Uganda Airlines

Is Uganda Airlines safe?

Yes, as far as the record shows, but the record is short. The state airline relaunched in 2019 with new Bombardier CRJ900 regional jets, later joined by Airbus A330-800s, and has had no accident since. Uganda is not on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary. What we cannot confirm is the outside checking: Uganda Airlines is not an IATA member, so there is no confirmed IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit, and Uganda's regulator has never been assessed by the FAA because no Ugandan airline flies to the United States. We score it 75, with low confidence.

Is this the same Uganda Airlines that crashed in Rome?

No. The first Uganda Airlines was a state corporation that flew from 1976 until it was closed in 2001. Its deadliest accident was on 17 October 1988, when a Boeing 707 from London tried a third approach to Rome Fiumicino in fog, descended below the minimum height and hit the roof of a house 1,300 metres short of the runway. Thirty-three of the 52 people on board died.

Today's airline is a new company, Uganda National Airlines Company Limited, with its own certificate, aircraft and crews. It shares the name and the national role, but nothing that our accident rule counts. We describe the old airline's history here and do not score it. The Rome crash would be far outside our 20-year window anyway.

A clean start, and why that is not the whole story

A young airline with no accidents still has a lot to prove. Seven years is a short record, much of it shrunk by the pandemic, and the fleet is small. We give an airline with that kind of clean but short record 88 for accidents, below airlines such as South African Airways that have decades without a fatal crash.

The bigger question is oversight. Uganda's accident investigation unit only became independent in April 2019, and its website publishes no reports. Uganda Airlines told the trade press in 2020 that the pandemic had pushed back its first IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit, while its IATA membership application was being processed. In October 2026 it was still not on IATA's member list. That leaves no strong outside audit we could verify, which is why oversight scores 64, below the 80 we give Kenya Airways and RwandAir.

The public incident record is just as thin. In early April 2026 a CRJ900 climbing out of Johannesburg for Entebbe turned back after a bird strike shattered a windscreen, and landed safely. A bird strike also hit a CRJ900 at Entebbe in January 2023. That is all AeroInside lists. With little published by Ugandan investigators, two events in seven years tell us how few reports there are, not how safe the airline is.

A small, new fleet under strain

The airline's own fleet page lists only two types, the Bombardier CRJ900 and the Airbus A330-800. All were delivered new, the CRJs at the 2019 relaunch and the A330s after them. The A330-800 is a modern fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary widebody; the CRJ900 is new-built but rests on a 1990s design without fly-by-wire.

With so few aircraft, one fault grounds whole routes. In early 2026 both A330-800s were taken out of service for unscheduled maintenance, and on 20 February the airline suspended all long-haul flights. From March an Ethiopian Airlines 787-8, with Ethiopian pilots, cabin crew and engineers, flew the London and Mumbai routes. One A330 returned on 17 April; the other was still grounded at Entebbe a few days later (ch-aviation). In May the first of two Ethiopian 737-800s arrived on the same terms, and an A320 from Danish Air Transport flies some regional routes. Flights on these aircraft are flown by the lessor's crews on the lessor's certificate, so they count on Ethiopian Airlines or DAT, not here. At the Farnborough air show in July 2026, Uganda Airlines placed its first direct Boeing order, four 737 MAX 8s and four 787-9s.

Where it flies

From Entebbe, beside Lake Victoria, the network reaches about 19 destinations in East, Central, Southern and West Africa, among them Nairobi, Johannesburg, Lagos, Kinshasa, Bujumbura, Juba and Mogadishu, plus Dubai, Mumbai and London Gatwick. Mogadishu lies under an EASA conflict-zone bulletin for Somalia, and Dubai flights stopped from 28 February 2026, after the war on Iran began, until mid-April. Thunderstorms over the lake are a routine hazard for arrivals at Entebbe.

How to fly Uganda Airlines more safely

• Check your aircraft and operator. A booking with Uganda Airlines may be flown on an Ethiopian or Danish Air Transport aircraft and crew; the booking shows the operating airline.
• Build in slack on connections. With a small fleet, one technical fault can cancel a day's flights on a route, so avoid tight onward connections through Entebbe.
• Watch the IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary status. If the airline joins IATA, the main gap in its oversight score closes.

How we scored it

The accident record (88) and fleet (80) are strong for an airline this young. Oversight (64) and incidents (62) are held down by the lack of a confirmed IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit and by thin public reporting, and the network (58) includes conflict-zone and weather-exposed airports. Confidence is low because seven years on a handful of aircraft is too short a record to be sure.