Former Minister and Soroti Municipality MP Capt. Mike Mukula has decided to relocate his Aviation training school to Kenya, citing frustration by the Uganda’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Mukula says for three years he has been denied an Air Operators Certificate (AOC) by the CAA.
The Uganda Aviation School was registered in 2013 and cleared by the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE). For the three years however, Mukula says, his aircrafts have been grounded and paying parking fees
Mukula says he decided to apply for the same certificate in Kenya which he got in less than a week.Mukula says he has already relocated three of his aircraft (all Cessnas) to Kenya.
“I had already ordered another four aircraft, which I couldn’t bring here because of lack of progress,” the former Soroti MP told a Ugandan website.
“We will now be taking our students to Kenya, because the environment there is better. You ask yourself, why did it take the Kenyans just one week to clear us? They have the same standards (as CAA), they are all regulated by ICAO,” he said.
Mukula’s school was issued with an Air Service Licence, but was denied the Air Operators Certificate.As such the school over the past years has been training mainly cabin crew (hostesses).
Mukula says he has been working to build the largest aviation training centre in East Africa, if it weren’t for the frustration at the Civil Aviation Authority.
Because of the challenges here, Mukula says most of the Ugandan aviation student have been running to South Africa and the United States.
He warns that if the red tape is not addressed, it will be a major threat for the Uganda Airlines which is being revamped.
The national airline, he says may face the same fate as Air Uganda, which collapsed a few years ago, causing a loss of over $100million to the Aga Khan.
CAA however insists Mukula’s training school was examined and found below the required standards.
However, the Civil Aviation Authority has come out to clarify that Mukula never applied for any Air Operators license.
In a tweet seen by this website, the CAA said they had not received any application for the license and added that ” when licenses are received, they are reviewed and those that comply with stipulated requirements were then granted certificates of operation”
The impasse that has gotten Ugandans feeling patriotic and asking the CAA to consider Mukula’s request for a license to operate.
