GOVERNMENT TO REVAMP UGANDA AIRLINES AND AERODROMES.

With tourism now officially recognized as second largest source of foreign exchange after remittances from Ugandans working abroad, the Ugandan government is considering reviving its national carrier almost 20 years after it folded.

This follows reports that the viability of maintaining a national carrier is now feasible because traffic at Entebbe Airport has more than quadrupled in the past three years from 1,200 passengers per year to over 10,000.

According to the Transport and Works Minister Engineer Abraham Byandala, government was misled to think that running a national carrier was not feasible because it was just sucking money out of the economy with minimal returns yet air transport plays a supportive role in the transformation of the economy.

Speaking at the opening of the first Africa-Indian Ocean Aviation safety group and the 18th regional planning and implementation group on Monday, the minister said his ministry has prepared a five year strategic plan for the expansion of Entebbe airport.

“I think we were misled to think that running a national airline was not a feasible business. We tried through privatization to attract the private sector through the private public partnership but the investors we got said operating it was very expensive,” he said, adding that, “I am drafting a paper to present to cabinet about the viability of running a national carrier. Now that we have discovered oil and we shall be making our own aviation fuel, we need large reserves. We are going to have an aircraft maintenance center,” he said.

According to Dr. Rama Makuza, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Managing director, CAA has a five-year strategic plan to expand Entebbe airport which will see the expansion of the car parking lot to make it storeyed while the number of aero plane hangars will be doubled from the current 11 to 22.

“We are planning for a second runway to accommodate bigger planes like those owned by Qatar and Emirates Airways because currently they cannot land here and even for smaller aerodromes like Kasese, Arua and Gulu, we want to expand them to accommodate planes to the magnitude of the Boeing 737,” he said.

Uganda Airlines under the Uganda Airlines Corporation was the flag carrier of Uganda. It was established in 1976 and started operations in 1977 with Entebbe Airport as its hub. It was liquidated in 2001 after attempts to privatize the debt ridden company failed.

Some of the investors who expressed interest in running the Airline included SA Alliance, Air Mauritius, British Airways Johanesberg based Inter Air, Kenya Airways and Sabena.  This is a positive strategic which will give our tourists/clients that come to Uganda get a variety of plane to use at any time possible hence tourism develop at large.Book cheap trip

NATASHA (CHIMP) BEAR OUTSTANDING AND EXTRAORDINARY SOCIAL SKILLS ONLY MATCHED TO HUMANS.

A group of German scientists have hailed a cheeky Ugandan chimpanzee called Natasha as a “genius” who is “intellectually closer to humans than most apes.”

According to findings published online by The Sun, a UK-based newspaper yesterday, Natasha, who lives in Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary on Lake Victoria, can communicate with people and manipulate them.

The 22-year-old demands extra food by clapping at caretakers during feeding time. She also gets her fun by playfully beckoning people to fling food her way, then spraying them with water.

Dr Joshua Rukundo, the sanctuary’s operations director, confirmed that a group of scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Germany was at the sanctuary and carried out a study on selected chimpanzees five years ago.

“Natasha is definitely among the most intelligent chimpanzees you will ever find,” said Dr Rukundo, who also doubles as the veterinary doctor at the sanctuary.

“But I think it is rather biased to zero down on Natasha when the study was selective. Many other intelligent chimpanzees were left out of the process due to different reasons.”

Chimpanzees, which carry up to 98.7 per cent similar DNA to humans, have near-human levels of intelligence as they are able to pick up behavioural practices from people around them. “We have a couple of clever ones like Africa, Rambo and Pasa, and most of the females,” added Dr Rukundo.

“For instance we have an electric fence surrounding their feeding area to ensure no chimp escapes but Pasa always does. She will pick a green branch and throw it at the fence to check if the power is on and will escape as soon as she doesn’t see a spark,” Dr Rukundo said, before adding that Pasa simply refused to be examined by the scientists. He hinted on the possibility that Natasha could be the most intelligent chimp in the world.

“She has such advanced social skills that will leave you wondering.”
Natasha was born in the wild and it is thought that she could have been orphaned after her mother was killed by pet traders. But she was rescued from two years of captivity and was among the very first chimps to be accommodated at Ngamba, a sanctuary that was gazetted in October 1998. http://wonderuganda.co.ug/7dayskibale.php,

 http://ngambaisland.com/about/about.html,

SAVE BWINDI FOREST A HOME TO ENDANGERED MOUNTAIN GORILLAS.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is located in southwestern Uganda in East Africa. The park is part of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, and is situated along the Democratic Republic of Congo border next to the Virunga National Park and on the edge of the Albertine Rift. It comprises 331 square kilometres (128 sq mi) of jungle forests and contains both montane and lowland forest and is accessible only on foot.

The Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site. The forest is one of the richest ecosystems in Africa, and the diversity of species is a feature of the park. The park provides habitat for some 120 species of mammals, 348 species of birds, 220 species of butterflies, 27 species of frogs, chameleons, geckos and many endangered species. Floristically Bwindi is amongst the most diverse forests in East Africa, with more than 1,000 flowering plant species including 163 species of trees and 104 species of ferns. The northern (low altitude) sector is rich in species of the Guineo-Congolian flora. These include two species internationally recognized as endangered, Brown mahogany (Lovoa swynnertonii) and Brazzeia longipedicellata. In particular the area shares in the high levels of endemisms of the Albertine Rift.

The park is a sanctuary for Columbus monkeys, chimpanzees and many birds (such as hornbills and turacos). It is perhaps most notable for the 340, Bwindi gorillas, half the world's population of the critically endangered Mountain Gorillas. There are eight habituated Mountain Gorilla groups open to tourism: Mubare, Habinyanja, Bitukura, Rushegura, Nkuringo, Nshongi, Mshaya and Oruzogo

Gorilla tracking is the park's main tourist attraction. Tourists wishing to track gorillas must first obtain a permit to do so. Gorilla tracking generates much revenue for Uganda Wildlife Authority. The gorillas seldom react to tourists. There are strict rules for tourists to minimize the risk of diseases passing from them to the gorillas. Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the only countries where it is possible to visit mountain gorillas. Guided walks through the forest include a walk to a waterfall, and  monkey,bird and butterfly watching.