Trust Before Growth: Girma Wake Sets New Course for Uganda Airlines

July 12, 2026 in Business, Companies, Travel & Tourism by Editor

In his first substantive public statement since taking charge of Uganda Airlines, Acting CEO Girma Wake acknowledges that confidence in the national carrier has been tested. Rather than promise quick fixes or rapid expansion, he lays out a strategic reset built on operational integrity, accountability, long-term leadership and commercial discipline—an agenda that could define the airline’s most significant transformation since its revival in 2019.

 

Michael Wakabi

When Girma Wake accepted the challenge of steering Uganda Airlines through one of the most critical phases in its young history, he chose silence over headlines.

Since assuming office as Acting Chief Executive Officer, Africa’s most accomplished aviation executive has largely stayed out of the public spotlight. That changed this week with the publication of his CEO’s Note in the third quarter of the airline’s Ng’aali in-flight magazine.

On the surface, Flying Forward: A New Chapter for the Crane appears to be a routine welcome message to passengers. Read more carefully, however, it is something far more consequential: the first public articulation of Wake’s leadership philosophy and a roadmap for what could become the most significant strategic reset since Uganda Airlines was revived in 2019.

Unlike the optimistic rhetoric that has often accompanied discussions about the national carrier, Wake begins with an unusually candid acknowledgement.

“Confidence in the institution among passengers, staff and the wider public has been tested.”

For a state-owned airline that has weathered boardroom upheavals, executive turnover, procurement scrutiny and persistent questions over its commercial sustainability, that single sentence is perhaps, the clearest acknowledgement yet from the airline’s leadership that restoring credibility has become as important as opening new routes.

The statement also reveals a fundamental shift in priorities. For much of its existence, Uganda Airlines has measured success through visible milestones: the acquisition of aircraft, the launch of new destinations and the restoration of Uganda’s place on the global aviation map. Wake’s message suggests a different sequence -before growth comes governance.

Instead of promising rapid expansion or imminent profitability, he anchors his vision on four principles: operational integrity, accountability, the right leadership for the long term, and a strategy worthy of Uganda’s potential.

Those are not random management buzzwords. They correspond almost exactly to the areas in which observers have argued Uganda Airlines must improve if it is to mature into a commercially sustainable flag carrier.

The emphasis is hardly surprising coming from a man whose career helped shape Ethiopian Airlines into Africa’s most successful aviation enterprise.

Wake’s six decades in aviation—including his tenure as Chief Executive of Ethiopian Airlines between 2004 and 2011 and later as Chairman of the Ethiopian Airlines Group—were defined less by dramatic announcements than by disciplined execution. Under his leadership, Ethiopian Airlines expanded into a global network carrier while maintaining one of the continent’s strongest operational and financial records.

His philosophy has always been that profitability is the outcome of sound governance rather than the starting objective. That thinking permeates every paragraph of his message.

He speaks directly to pilots, engineers, cabin crew and frontline staff, acknowledging the burden they have carried through uncertain times. Rather than presenting leadership as authority, he frames it as service.

“I am here to serve alongside you, not above you,” he writes. That sentence may prove just as significant internally as his admission about public confidence. Airlines succeed or fail not simply because of aircraft or route networks, but because thousands of employees consistently deliver safe, reliable operations every day.

The timing of the message is equally significant. Uganda Airlines is entering its most ambitious expansion programme since its revival. Following the launch of direct services to London Gatwick, the airline is preparing for a major fleet expansion that includes Boeing 787 Dreamliners, additional narrow-body aircraft and dedicated cargo freighters.

That expansion will inevitably increase financial commitments, operational complexity and public scrutiny.

Wake appears to recognise that acquiring more aircraft without strengthening institutional discipline would simply magnify existing weaknesses.

Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of his message is what it deliberately avoids.

There are no grand declarations that Uganda Airlines will soon become Africa’s leading carrier. No sweeping projections about passenger growth. No promises of instant transformation.

Instead, Wake repeatedly returns to patience, discipline and consistency.

“We are not yet the airline we intend to become,” is an admission that meaningful institutional change cannot be achieved through publicity campaigns or ambitious procurement programmes alone.

Whether this philosophy translates into measurable results will depend on execution. Uganda Airlines still faces the difficult task of improving yields, strengthening its balance sheet, expanding commercially viable routes and demonstrating that public investment is generating sustainable returns.

But the significance of Wake’s first public statement lies less in the specific initiatives he outlines than in the culture it seeks to establish.

For years, Uganda Airlines has largely been defined by the politics of reviving a national carrier. Girma Wake is signalling that the next chapter must be defined by something different – the discipline of building a commercially credible airline.

If his words become reflected in boardroom decisions, operational performance and financial outcomes, this modest CEO’s note may one day be remembered not as a welcome message to passengers, but as the document that marked the beginning of Uganda Airlines’ institutional transformation.