CEO’S NOTE

elcome aboard Uganda Airlines! I greet you at a time when the impact of the coronavirus and the multiple government travel restrictions are being felt throughout the world. It is no surprise that our industry has been hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic having had airports, borders and markets closed since March 2020. After six months of flight suspension, we are back in the skies, fired up and ready to reclaim lost time on what we set out to achieve in our strategic plan. We remain committed in our quest to connect Uganda to the rest of Africa and the world and to make Uganda Airlines your favourite world class airline. We resume operations with COVID-19 still active, which calls for concerted efforts from all of us to manage and stop it from spreading. At Uganda Airlines, we are committed to keeping passengers safe and healthy through strict adherence to approved Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), in compliance with national and international guidelines for safe air travel. We appeal to our passengers to abide by the guidelines issued by airports across the world, which include the wearing of face masks, temperature checks at various points, frequent sanitisation of hands, and social distancing as far as possible. Passengers will also be required to present to us proof of a negative PCR test result for COVID-19 before being processed for boarding. The test must have been taken no more than 72 hours prior to the date of the planned flight, from a health facility accredited by the host government from which the first flight is taken.

As we restart our flights, we are conscious that the health crisis has affected demand for air travel and so we have adjusted our schedules and frequencies. However, we shall continue to add more flights to meet your needs. As we make these changes, we shall endeavor to inform you ahead of time through our website, facebook page, twitter handles and our network of sales offices and travel agents, so that our passengers can plan and book their journeys with us.

Uganda Airlines continues to be about our travellers. We will continue to offer you a welcoming, friendly and courteous customer experience across all our touch points from the first contact and booking, through ticketing, check-in, on-board service, arrival and post arrival processes. Our schedules are designed to offer you convenience and flexibility across our growing regional network and we will continue with our plan to add more cities to our network including Johannesburg, Lusaka, Harare, Kinshasa, Goma, Lubumbashi, Khartoum, Kigali, Addis Ababa and others.

We are looking forward to receiving our two Airbus A330-800neo aircraft in December 2020 and January 2021, to be used to launch inter-continental flights to Europe (London), Asia (Guangzhou) and the Middle East (Dubai). Our systems are being upgraded to allow for global connectivity and the implementation of a framework of alliances, interlines and codeshare with partners across the industry. Even after COVID-19, our shareholders continue to support and invest in the business and we are well positioned for the future.

Thank you for making Uganda Airlines your airline of choice and we look forward to being of service to you again soon. Please sit back, relax and enjoy your flight with us.

Cornwell Muleya CEO Uganda Airlines

Uganda’s First Uganda’s First 3 Tesla MRI 3 Tesla MRI

The country’s first 3 Tesla magnetic resonance scanner (MRI) for clinical use is now available in Kampala at Ruby Medical Center on Lugogo Bypass.

The MRI brings with it important tools to help physicians improve the accuracy of diagnoses and treatment of broad categories of diseases including stroke, brain tumours, epilepsy, musculoskeletol and heart disease.

With a magnet strength of 3 Tesla or 3T, the new MRI is the most powerful scanner available to patients today in routine clinical use. The technology used has been eagerly awaited by physicians in the region, who often refer patients to India or even Europe for more sophisticated imaging when the need arises.

Dr William k. Olwit, a radiologist at the Medical Center, compares the images produced by the 3T scanner to how people might view a television show on an ultra-high definition television. It is this precise imagingthat will help physicians pinpoint disease at the earliest, especially for certain types of cancers.

“The outstanding image quality captured by the 3T MRI will help to provide more accurate and timely diagnoses, quicker scans for patients, less likelihood of rescans, and allow us to introduce new important services such as Funtional Imaging,” he says. MRIs use a magnetic field and radio waves to create cross-sectional images of anatomy. The magnet strength is the key to image clarity - the stronger the magnet, the clearer the image. The strength of the magnet iN a 3T MRI is so high compared to magnets that pick-up junk cars. The latter have a strength of about 1.5T compared to the 3T, which is 60,000 times as powerful as the earth’s magnetic field.

The new scanner will also allow radiologists at the Medical Center to introduce a relatively new type of imaging called Funtional MRI, or fMRI. fMRI allows physicians to non-invasively conduct “brain mapping” or, pinpoint to millimeters, areas of the brain that generate specific actions like speech or movement. This information is critical when planning any type of brain surgery (for epilepsy or tumours, among others) that may impact brain tissue near vital movement or thought areas.

Ruby Medical Center is now home to one of the most advanced imaging available in the region.In addition to the 3T MRI, the facility also houses a CT Scanner, digital X-Ray and a state-of-the-art Ultrasound.