On Wednesday, Jennifer Bamuturaki was appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer for Uganda Airlines.
A letter dated 5th July 2022 to the chairperson of the Uganda Airlines board, the Works and Transport Minister, Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, confirmed that Bamuturaki had been appointed as the airline’s substantive CEO.
According to Gen Wamala, Ms Bamuturaki’s appointment as the airline’s top boss came from President Yoweri Museveni in April this year.
Ms Bamuturaki has been serving as an interim CEO for more than a year following the suspension and subsequent sacking of former CEO Cornwell Muleya, some board members and some staff over allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
Who is Bamutaraki?
Bamuturaki studied at Makerere University where she obtained a degree of Bachelor of Arts in Social Work and Social Administration. She also has qualifications in International Air Transport Association (IATA) sales training for airlines, hotel sales and marketing, in addition to training in revenue management.
She comes to head the national carrier with over 30 years of experience as a marketing consultant in the airline, hospitality and travel industries.
Earlier, Bamutaraki worked as the airline’s commercial director when it had just resumed operations in 2019 but was pushed out.
She previously worked with Air Uganda, “where she was directly responsible for route research. She is a hands-on manager. For seven years she served as a country manager for East African Airlines.
In April 2021, she was appointed as acting CEO. During her time as an interim CEO, Bamutaraki made tremendous achievements for the airline and is credited for pushing for additional routes to the airline’s network including Dubai, London, Guangzhou and other regional routes.
Currently, the airline operates flights to ten regional destinations which include, Johannesburg, Juba, Nairobi and Kinshasa with Dubai so far the only international route. However, soon the airline is to expand its international route by including London and Guangzhou.