Museveni Lauds Uganda Aviation Academy as Over 60 Graduate

By Max Patrick Ocaido

President Yoweri Museveni has commended Uganda Aviation Academy (UAA), the first privately-owned aviation school, for providing the capacity to promote the industry.

Museveni was represented by Minister of Works, Monica Azuba Ntege at the 8th graduation ceremony of UAA at Protea Hotel in Kampala where 69 students graduated with diplomas in various aviation disciplines such as Airline crew training, airline customer service, aviation security awareness, IATA GDS fares and ticketing among others.

Museveni in his statement read by minister Azuba appreciated the efforts of the private sector in uplifting various sectors.

“A skilled workforce is the fulcrum of the economy. That is why I commend the school [UAA) for prescribing solutions to the dire shortage of human resources in the aviation industry in Uganda. This academy is harnessing what government has started,” Museveni said in his statement.

He pledged to provide an enabling environment and infrastructure to allow the private sector to thrive to promote the aviation industry.  

On the other hand, Capt. Mike Mukula, the proprietor of the Uganda Aviation Industry, called on the East African member states to consider putting in place one regional airline instead of splitting the market with numerous airlines.

“Uganda is a landlocked country, we must interconnect Uganda to the rest of the world market and this can only be done if we harness human resources. I would like to urge you to consider setting up EAC national airline, we need to combine this market rather than partition the small market we have. See how you can pull these resources to pull one airline for a regional airline. We must come out of artificial boundaries, borders closed should be quickly opened so people can trade. We shouldn't create these challenges that we think we can settle,” Mukula said.

Mukula said the Uganda Aviation Academy is working on a partnership with Ethiopian airlines to train staff for the aviation industry, a move he says will be critical at propelling Africa’s growth in the sector.

“We think we will transfer this knowledge into our national airline. By 2050, Uganda’s population will be around 120m people and 2.4bn in Africa. If we transform this big population into a market, the African continent has a bright future. We are working together to put University to train hoteliers, youths in catering, housekeeping, laundry, this is where the future of the aviation sector is, for a long time we have been relying on Kenya. We need to build institutions that can give young people jobs,” he said.

Captain Francis Babu, the Chairman of Uganda Aviation Academy called on parents to embrace the aviation industry and drop the notion that the aviation industry is immersed in immorality and prostitution arguing there is a need to understand the aviation industry.

“People haven't understood this aviation job well. The truth is, our children should be left to join the aviation industry. This job is important because laws demand we have the crew to support passengers. The clothes they wear are to market the airlines not modeling,” Babu said. 

The Uganda Aviation Academy was established in 2011 to enhance quality civil aviation training and provide end to end solutions to rapid growth and expansion in the east and central Africa's dynamic aviation Industry and the Academy is looking at opening up liaison offices in South Sudan, Burundi and Kenya.

According to Esther Yapkoreny, UAA Operations manager, the Aviation Academy will soon introduce new courses including; Private piloting license, Aircraft Maintenance Engineering License, Airframe and Powerplant, Electrical and Avionics as well as Flight Operations.