At the World Travel Awards Africa last month, Kenya Airways (KQ) won four awards; Africa’s Leading Airline, Africa’s Leading Airline– Business Class, Africa’s Leading Airline Brand, and Africa’s Leading Inflight Magazine.
That is quite difficult to argue against especially if you are Uganda Airlines (UA) a very new face in the industry. Slowly however, tides are beginning to change as passengers learn of the uniqueness that flying Uganda’s national carrier comes with.
The areas in which the latter wins tend to be changes that do not require much industrial experience and yet make a big difference in terms of the flying experience for a person.
In this article, we go head-to-head exploring six or so categories of the things that travellers lookout for in planes and then giving a verdict of whether it is KQ or Uganda Airlines that wins for each of them.
We start with the instances in which Kenya airways takes the edge before looking at the ones UA carries the day.
About the companies
But before getting into the real battle, let us understand the history and general information relating to both KQ and UA.
Kenya Airways
Kenya Airways is the national airline for Kenya. It was established in 1977 following the sinking of East African Airways (EAA) with a number of iterations made to the company across the years. In 1996 for instance, KQ was partly privatised leaving the government with 48.9% control.
In its present form, the carrier is a member of the Sky Team as well as African Airlines Association going back from 2010 and 1977 respectively. The first half of 2024 marked the first period post Covid-19 during which KQ made profits ($4 million).
Passenger numbers equally rose by an impressive 10%. For context, the company had registered a $168 million loss during the same time the previous year. Progress continues to be made. In 2025 thus, $42 pre-profit tax was reported.
All this is thanks in part to project Kifaru which emphasized customer experience, financial discipline, and rigor in operation.
KQ’s hub is Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
Uganda Airlines
The official legal name of UA is Uganda National Airlines. That is because there was in fact a “Uganda Airlines” which operated beginning 1977 after the fall of EAA just like we saw with KQ. Things did not go well for the company though so it closed in 2001.
For the intervening fifteen or so years, Uganda actually had no Air transport institution based in the country. UA came in again to fill this gap in 2018.
Though the real flying only began in 2019 after the fulfilling of a set of pre-requisite procedures e.g. obtaining regulatory permission and hiring staff (including 24 cockpit crew members at the time).
100% of the company’s shares are owned by the government and its base also doubles as her country’s only International Airport– Entebbe.
The first flight ever of UA as revived was to JKIA on 28th August, 2019. On board were 8 passengers.
Areas in which Kenya Airways wins
Destinations
KQ
Kenya Airways is your choice if at all you frequently fly across the world and you have to pick from the carrier on one hand and UA on the other. This because it travels to at least forty destinations. The airline especially focuses on connecting African cities.
The places to where it goes on the continent, include; Kampala (Uganda), Antananarivo (Madagascar), Cape Town (South Africa), Abuja (Nigeria), Dakar (Senegal), Kigali (Rwanda), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), Lilongwe (Malawi), Johannesburg (South Africa), Khartoum (Sudan), and Lusaka (Zambia).
Internationally, KQ flies to; Guangzhou (China), London (United Kingdom), New York (United States of America), Mumbai (India), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Bangkok (Indonesia), etc.
Probably the biggest early success that KQ registered on this front was when in 2017, it garnered approval to fly directly to New York’s JFK Airport.
In doing so, it became the first East African company to secure flights into the United States their by demonstrating its dynamism and competence to match the very demanding standards that an endeavour of the kind requires.
As part of the process for instance, it had to be ascertained that Jomo Kenyatta International Airport met American transport and security standards.
We should also note the fact that doing this puts KQ in a place of competing with some of the biggest names in the industry who would have very likely pulled all the strings they could to fail it.
Uganda Airlines would have had something to lean on under this metric given that it launched a direct route between Entebbe and Gatwick not so long ago.
But then, KQ followed suit a few months after. Perhaps we can commend the competition by the young flights company as having affected this new development that passengers in East Africa will now enjoy.
UA
Uganda Airlines flies to a total of nineteen cities. So, less than half of the transportation that Kenya Airways does.
As far as Africa goes, the cranes (that is how the company aero planes are found of being called locally alluding to the fact that Uganda’s emblem is the crested crane) travel to; Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), Kigali (Rwanda), Nairobi (Kenya), Johannesburg (South Africa), Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo), Abuja (Nigeria) etc.
Outside the continent, UA flies to only two destinations; Gatwick in the United Kingdom (as explained already) and Guangzhou (China).
Fleet
An airline’s brand in no small way depends on its fleet i.e. the capacities of the planes that it operates. At the end of the day, it is these machines that get to transport passengers. Again, Kenya Airways wins.
KQ
First of all, KQ comes ahead of UA in terms of the numbers. The company at least has thirty air birds. It is also crucial to note that they are more diverse in terms of the companies that produce them as well as what they can accomplish in comparison to what UA has. The entities from which they were purchased are; Boeing, Airbus, Fokker, as well as Embraer.
Further, KQ has different iterations too for the said producers as we shall shortly see. This makes it easier for the airline to meet the objectives of varying people at the same time as every one of these models has strengths particular to it.
While the bigger ones transport passengers across thousands of miles without compromising comfort for instance, the smaller ones cover shorter distances while minimizing the fairs.
The KQ line-up is composed of; Airbus A310, Airbus A330, Boeing 737, Boeing 737-200, Boeing 757, Boeing 787, Embraer 170/175, Embraer 190/195 etc.
UA
Uganda Airline’s fleet is simple. Seven planes it is. They are; A330-800neos (two), Bombardier CRJ-900s (four), and A320 (one). There is nowhere that it compares with KQ. This in part explains why the difference between the routes covered by the companies is pretty disproportionate as we saw earlier.
Perhaps the only way in which UA fleet beats KQ is the fact that they are new which means that the aero planes that compose it are not likely to breakdown.
Indeed, in 2023, UA was recognized for having the youngest average age of carriers by a Swiss based air transport monitor.
As such, it would be safer to travel with UA. The airline has not reported any major incidents or accidents whatsoever since its inception actually. Given how long KQ has been operating though, the fact that it has suffered only two of these positions it pretty up there in terms of safety too.
Areas in which Uganda Airlines wins
Despite KQ’s legacy, here are the reasons as to why UA has begun to eat away on its base.
Professionalism
UA
Uganda Airlines staff have been talked about as very hospitable and eager to help by many reviewers. The last thing that you want on a long journey is a cabin crew that will give you a headache because you really have no way to escape the torment.
Thankfully, at UA, the hostesses and hosts do not mind hearing your inquiries and guiding you on how to work around them. They are equally good with the usual stuff that is expected of them; serving food on time, safety precautions demonstrations, communication when set to land etc.
This extends to the cockpit members alike. Pilots have thus been heralded for taking off smoothly as well as landing with very low friction.
The degree of organization is very high bar stuff too. The blankets handed out are soft for instance, the headphones work, and you are given eye masks plus socks too.
KQ
KQ cabin crew was complimented by several reviewers so that is not where the major problem lies. Unfortunately, organization is holistic so when certain departments demonstrate persistent incompetence, it contaminates the good work by everybody else.
For Kenya Airways, the rotten tomatoes are the airport folks. They are not only responsive but seem to be willing to flat out lie. This has been cited for instance, during delays.
While customers can be surprisingly understanding when it comes to these problems (as everyone appreciates the fact that coordination is tough), their alarm bells have gone off when KQ officials pretend that there is nothing amiss or that it is going to be worked on shortly on to wait hours and hours.
Moreover, some passengers have reported incidents of outright corruption e.g. being coerced to pay on the front desk even when one prefers a credit card with the threat of being forced to purchase a second Visa if not.
Green Flying
The airline industry has found itself in the firing line of the environmental movement as one of the carbon intensive sectors. The problem is that there are just no good alternatives to the speed at which the machines flown operate and that is not something we want to easily hand wave off given how globalized the world has become.
There have been some promising initial measures made however, and it is on this metric that UA beats KQ.
UA
Apart from the 787-8 and 787-9, Uganda Airlines’ A330-800neo planes are far friendlier to the environment than the rest of the planes that KQ flies. This is because the neos run on Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines which consume far fewer fuel per mile than the KQ fleet.
Additionally, these planes emit much less carbon which means that their footprint is minimal.
Even for the other planes though, they are a better option to fly if at all you are environment conscious than the KQ options because they are brand new. This means that their build is very intact and as such, require significantly less energy to get the job done.
KQ
The above is not to say that Kenya Airways is not doing anything as they most certainly are. It is just that whatever it is that they are involved with, does not match UA.
One of the things they are doing well is partnering with third parties in the recycling business. Through their agreement with NasServair for instance, Kenya’s flag carrier has made sure that 100% of the organic waste from the planes is converted in fertilizers.
KQ has also been big on joining industry green movements. Through its membership in the Sky Alliance for instance, Kenya Airways has shown solidarity via the Sustainable Flight Challenge platform.
Convenience
If you have been into flying for a while now, then you will know that there are benefits that you can only get by choosing to travel with new companies. In this case, it is Uganda airlines that is the new kid on the block.
The three below are contingent on the fact that UA is yet to carry passengers to its full capacity especially for the long distances. As the company finds ways of gaining more and more share in the industry, here is how you can benefit from the this gap in the meantime.
- Free space: because the cabin is not filled with passengers, it is not uncommon to find that a single passenger has three plus seats to themselves. This means that you can literally lie down and sleep a privilege that is otherwise only for business class people with other airlines.If you have been travelling for a while, you know just how much of a difference this can be.
- Last minute booking: the norm in the air transport business is that you have to secure a seat on a flight up until a specified time. This helps ensures proper organization given the logistics that come with these journeys (you want to know for example the amount of food you should carry with you if you are the staff). Whilst understandable, it also means that folks who find themselves in urgent need of connecting somewhere else are left out. Because UA is still making losses though, any extra cash helps hence the willingness to bend backwards.
- More luggage: again, because there are usually not as many people on board, the airline will allow those who fly with them to carry extra stuff as it can still afford room from what would have been used by everyone else if at all the carrier had its capacity met. My advice though would be that you do this if it is a direct flight. Otherwise, you might be inconvenienced if you intend to jump on a plane operated by a different body midway.
- Long lines: we all know just how annoying airport lines can be. Consider the ones in the middle of the journey; you have been flying for God knows how many hours and with all the exhaustion, now you have to move out and get checked. If you are on a plane that flies let’s say two hundred people, even if you are number one hundred, that is still some good time that you will be waiting. With UA however, the numbers traveling are not many so the time for which you have to wait is reduced.
I’m an aeronautical engineer (B1.1 License), a fan of travel, technology, and entrepreneurship. I’m also interested in writing and programming.