Why Experience Still Matters in Aviation — and why Girma Wake’s Uganda appointment is being misread

February 7, 2026 in Companies, Opinion, Travel & Tourism by Editor

 

 

 

 

Michael Wakabi

 

Criticism of Uganda’s decision to involve veteran aviation executive Ato Girma Wake in the transition at Uganda Airlines has been framed as a debate about age. In reality, it is a debate about how complex industries recover from institutional failure—and what kind of leadership is required at moments of reset rather than routine operations.

Aviation is indeed capital-intensive and technologically sophisticated. But it is also, fundamentally, a skills- and experience-intensive industry, where long institutional memory, credibility with financiers, manufacturers, regulators and global partners, and deep familiarity with airline economics often matter more at moments of crisis than raw operational stamina.

This is where much of the critique misunderstands both the role Wake has been asked to play and the nature of airline turnarounds.

Wake has not been appointed as a permanent CEO, nor as a hands-on operations chief managing daily flight schedules. His interim role is explicitly transitional: to stabilise governance, guide the recruitment of a substantive executive team, and restore credibility after a period marked by audit findings, management conflict and reputational damage.

In aviation, such roles are routinely filled by seasoned industry elders, precisely because they are removed from factional battles, command international respect, and can diagnose structural problems quickly. Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, Boeing and Airbus have all relied on senior former executives well past traditional retirement age during periods of crisis, not for nostalgia but for judgment.

The question, therefore, is not whether Wake can “run” an airline in 2026, but whether he can help reset one. His record suggests he can.

The argument that Wake’s experience belongs to a “different era” underestimates how much of airline success depends on enduring fundamentals rather than transient technology.

When Wake took over Ethiopian Airlines in 2004—at age 60, notably not young—he inherited a small, vulnerable carrier with 12 aircraft, weak global positioning and skepticism from almost every quarter. What followed was not a technological miracle, but a governance and strategy transformation: long-term planning (Vision 2010), disciplined fleet acquisition, alliance integration, management autonomy, and relentless institutional capacity building.

Those fundamentals did not expire in 2011. They were precisely what allowed his successors—Tewolde GebreMariam and later Mesfin Tasew Bekele—to scale Ethiopian Airlines into Africa’s largest and most resilient aviation group. Crucially, Wake did not represent an endpoint in Ethiopian Airlines’ leadership—but a foundation.

The Ethiopian Airlines Succession Model Strengthens, Not Weakens, the Case

Ironically, the Ethiopian Airlines example invoked by critics actually reinforces the logic behind Wake’s prospective involvement at Uganda Airlines.

Ethiopian’s success rests on a pipeline model of leadership, not a generational rupture. Tewolde GebreMariam rose through the ranks while Wake was CEO. Mesfin Tasew Bekele spent over a decade as COO before becoming CEO. Each transition preserved institutional knowledge while renewing operational leadership.

Wake himself remained relevant long after stepping down as CEO: chairing RwandAir’s board (2012–2017), returning to Ethiopian Airlines’ board in 2018, and serving as chairman until 2023. These are not ceremonial roles. They are positions of strategic oversight in fast-moving, highly regulated industries.

That Ethiopian Airlines continued to thrive under successors does not invalidate Wake’s relevance; it demonstrates how experienced leadership enables succession, rather than blocking it.

Uganda Airlines’ Problem Is Institutional, Not Demographic

Critics are correct on one point: Uganda Airlines’ challenges are rooted in governance failures, political interference, weak procurement systems and blurred accountability. But this is precisely why an interim, external, highly experienced figure makes sense.

Uganda Airlines does not currently suffer from a lack of youthful energy; it suffers from a lack of institutional discipline. Fixing that requires someone who has seen airlines fail and succeed across decades, understands how boards, governments and management interact, and can impose order without being captured by internal politics.

This is not work for a first-time CEO learning on the job. It is work for someone whose career has already absorbed the costs of mistakes—and can therefore help others avoid repeating them.

On National Talent and False Dichotomies

The claim that Wake’s involvement signals a lack of faith in Ugandan professionals presents a false choice. Transitional leadership and local capacity building are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are often sequential.

Wake’s mandate explicitly includes recruiting a substantive CEO and rebuilding the top management team. If executed properly, this process should surface Ugandan and regional talent capable of leading the airline forward. His presence does not negate local expertise; it can help ensure it is selected, protected and empowered within a credible governance framework.

Countries serious about reform often borrow experience to build institutions. They do not confuse nationalism with isolation.

Age alone neither qualifies nor disqualifies a leader. What matters is role clarity, relevance and institutional context. At 82, Wake is not being asked to fly aircraft, negotiate daily slots or manage rosters. He is being asked to apply judgment accumulated over six decades in aviation to help Uganda Airlines recover its footing.

Aviation history shows that some of the industry’s most consequential decisions—fleet strategies, alliance choices, governance reforms—are often made by leaders whose greatest asset is not speed, but perspective.

Uganda Airlines does not need nostalgia. It needs a reset. If Wake’s involvement is used as a reputational shield, critics will be proven right. If it is used to impose governance discipline, rebuild credibility and hand over to a capable new generation of leadership, then his experience will have served exactly the purpose for which such experience exists.

In skills-intensive industries like aviation, experience expires only when it is no longer applied with clarity, restraint and purpose.

Michael Wakabi writes Aviation & Technology for 256 Business News