Former Ethiopian Airlines CEO Girma Wake will only serve as an advisor to Uganda Airlines, the airline’s board chairperson has said.
Priscilla Mirembe Serukka told OJ-UGANDA that, contrary to widespread speculation, Mr Wake would not take over the role of Jennifer Bamuturaki, the CEO who left the troubled airline amid allegations of mismanagement and incompetence.
“This is just an interim measure. He will be working as an advisor until we recruit [a new CEO],” she said.
Ms Serukka was responding to a question about the fate of candidates who are submitting applications for the advertised position of CEO.
By press time, she had not responded to questions about how long Mr Wake would serve as an advisor and whether he will have any executive or decision-making authority while recruitment is ongoing.
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President Museveni, who appointed Ms Bamuturaki, posted a photo on X standing with Mr Wake and Robert Kateera, a pilot based in Canada.
“I met Mr Girma Wake, the former CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, alongside Mr Robert Kateera at the State House today,” he wrote. “We discussed matters regarding air transport, among other issues.”
Mr Wake is a towering figure in the airline industry and is credited with turning around Ethiopian Airlines, which is widely viewed as Africa’s most successful carrier. The airline was launched nearly 80 years ago.
But some Ugandans have taken to social media to say that the problems facing Uganda Airlines extend far beyond mismanagement and that Mr Wake’s expertise may not help fix the airline’s challenges.
Commenting on Dr Catherine Kyobutungi’s post, which said that it is “weird” that an airline CEO is appointed and fired by the president, Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, said: “Exactly. Talent alone won’t fix Uganda Airlines. Not even the smartest CEO can make it profitable.”
Uganda Airlines, which was revived in 2019 after it was liquidated in 2001, has lurched from crisis to crisis. Ms Bamuturaki’s last days as CEO saw frequent flight delays and cancellations that forced passengers to share angry protest videos.
Ms Bamuturaki had limited background in the airline industry, according to publicly available information, having worked briefly for the now defunct East African Airlines, which was co-founded in the early 2000s by former Uganda Airlines general manager Benedict Mutyaba.
Admitting that he has been out of the airline industry for a “long, long time,” Mr Mutyaba, who now runs a law firm in Kampala, told OJ-UGANDA that Uganda Airlines has to get the recruitment of its workforce right.
“You have to recruit the best people. In most of these [Ugandan] companies, people will call and say, ‘Employ my son.’ From the word go, you have compromised the process,” he said.
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A parliamentary committee investigating mismanagement at the national carrier found during its inquiry that Ms Bamuturaki had hired a commercial director, Regina Tebasiima, who only had an A-Level certificate.
Mr Mutyaba said how recruitment is done “affects the whole process from start to the end”.
He also said that a wide route network is key to getting the airline up to speed and making it profitable, citing the example of Ethiopian Airlines.
“Ethiopian Airlines created Addis Ababa as their hub. From Addis Ababa, they launched long-haul flights. To do that you need a lot of planes,” he said.
Uganda Airlines started with four Bombardier CRJ900 passenger planes and later added two A330-800 Neo Airbuses. It has been flying to 14 destinations, according to information on its website.
By comparison, Ethiopian Airlines ordered up to 67 Boeing aircraft in 2023 and flies to 150 domestic and international passenger and cargo destinations across five continents.
CORRECTIONS | Updated February 6, 2026, 17:45: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft Uganda Airlines started with. It started with four, not two. | Updated February 17, 2026, 8:57am: The same story incorrectly described Robert Kateera as a Uganda Airlines pilot. He is a junior pilot based in Canada.
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