Jenifer Bamuturaki, the Chief Executive Officer of Uganda Airlines, has won the coveted Africa Travel 100 Award which recognises exceptional women in the travel and tourism sector.
She has served as the Commercial Director of Uganda Airlines, responsible for Commercial, Sales & Marketing, scheduling and network planning end-to-end management and sales and service support to all markets and Countries of operation.
Previously, she worked for Air Uganda and East African Airlines.
As she is widely called, Jenny has over 20 years of experience in Commercial, Sales & Marketing direction in the Aviation, Travel and Hospitality industries.
Her wealth of expertise is building teams, developing strategic resellers relationships, negotiations and route development.
Jenny has also served as Sales and Marketing Director of International Hotel Brands.
Jenny is a Social Scientist with certifications from IATA, Starwood and other leadership and professional training.
Key milestones
During Bamuturaki’s one-year period as acting CEO, she registered great milestones with emphasis on zero-tolerance to corruption and employing cost-saving measures for the national carrier. It was therefore not surprising that President Yoweri Museveni appointed Bamuturaki as the the substantive Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Uganda Airlines, the country’s growing national carrier, in July 2022.
Despite the COVID-19 disruptions, Bamuturaki has registered several achievements during her one-year stint as Uganda Airlines Acting CEO.
More travelers are embracing Uganda Airlines as the national carrier under the leadership of Bamuturaki continues to market itself as the airline of choice.
Addressing the press a few months ago, Bamuturaki said Uganda Airlines carried 154,245 passengers in 2021 compared to 93,780 in 2019 and 2020 combined.
She added that the airline is now focusing on “investing in customer retention systems, seeking strategic partnerships, growing cargo operations and network expansion.”
Uganda Airlines has already completed feasibility studies on a number of routes it plans to fly to. Some of the routes in question include Mumbai in India, London in United Kingdom, Goma and Lubumbashi (both in the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Guangzhou in China. In fact, Uganda Airlines has already got approval to fly to Guangzhou.
Having started commercial operations in August 2019, Uganda Airlines has expanded its network to 11 destinations since inception.
However, according to the airline’s business plan, in the 2nd year of operation, the national carrier had planned to have 18 and four (4) regional and international routes respectively, but this couldn’t be possible due to COVID-19 effects.
Some of the Uganda Airlines operational routes include Nairobi, Mombasa, Dubai, Kinshasa, Johannesburg, Juba, Dar es Salaam Mogadishu and Bujumbura.
It’s worth noting that Uganda Airlines fleet consists of two (2) Airbus A330-800 Neo and four (4) Bombardier CRJ900.
Additionally, Uganda Airlines has started operating domestic scenic flights, which are targeting first time fliers and also boosting the carrier’s revenues from charters. The domestic scenic flights are being chartered by a private client, Vilakazi Safaris Uganda Ltd, that is promoting domestic tourism.
Uganda Airlines operated its first scenic or joy flight on May 1st 2022 aboard one of its four Bombardier CRJ900 aircrafts.
Uganda Airlines has also rolled out its self-handling project. According to Bamuturaki, this will involve passenger, baggage and cargo handling, maintenance, security and general ground operations.
Ephraim Bagenda, the Director of Engineering and Maintenance at Uganda Airlines recently said the national carrier will save about US$250,000 (about Shs905.9m) per month that the airline has been spending on contracted maintenance.
Uganda Airlines joins other airlines embracing self ground handling including but not limited to Emirates, KLM, SAS (Scandinavian Airlines), Lufthansa, Ethiopian, Kenya Airways and RwandAir.
To retain customers and improve passenger experience, Uganda Airlines also plans to activate a Frequent Flier Program in the near future.
