Uganda Airlines has successfully carried out its first in-house engine replacement on the Crj900 airplane, marking a milestone in the life of the national carrier.
An engine change involves the careful removal of an existing engine and the installation of another engine. The CRJ900 aircraft is powered by two General Electric CF34-8C5 engines, designated as Engine 1 (left) and Engine 2 (right). The operation was conducted on the Number 1 engine position.
A brand-new spare engine has been installed on 5X-KNP. The change was required to facilitate the scheduled manufacturer modification of the previously installed engine.
The removed engine will be shipped to the manufacturer for upgrades and is expected to return for installation in the Number 2 position and this will allow the second engine to undergo the same modification later.
Although engine changes are a routine aspect of aircraft maintenance, this event held special importance as it marked the first engine change performed entirely in-house by the Uganda Airlines AMO team since receiving its approval from the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority in March 2024.
Speaking about the feat, Eng.Peter Emuge, the head of maintenance and engineering at Uganda Airlines said the work was done by only Ugandan engineers.
“This is a very exciting moment for us as Uganda Airlines, in that we now have the capability to maintain these aircraft to top notch conditions using very talented Ugandans. This is a very proud moment for us as an airline and also as a country, this has never happened before, and so it is one of those things that we are very excited about as Uganda,” Eng.Emuge said.
He explained that whereas the entire process can take two days, they did it in five days since there were graduate trainees who were part of the team.
” We just wanted to do it slowly, because we also have taken in about 18 interns for graduate trainees who we are training. So the process would take 48 hours to change that engine but because we’re trying to impact a skill to our young engineers, we gave it four to five days to have this job done. With this, we were trying to up-skill the graduate trainees.”
“Usually, such an engine change requires that the airline takes the aircraft to the country where it can be done and this comes at a cost. Like previously done in South Africa, it meant that the national carrier would incur costs in terms of fuel to and from as well as hiring equipment to be used for work and other costs but all this is eliminated since the work is now done in-house,”Eng.Emuge said .
“While doing this work, we are looking at something close to over $ 100,000 that is excluding the cost for flying this aircraft to a destination outside, there are fuel costs, over flight and application charges, plus handling at the destination. So it’s well over $100,000 if we are to do it outside. This means this money has been saved by doing it in-house,” the head of engineering and maintenance said.
Uganda Airlines CEO, Jenifer Bamuturaki said the feat speaks to the national carrier’s six- year growth journey from 2019.
“This is the first time we are having an engine change in Uganda but the team of engineers doing it are experienced. Some are doing it for like the 10th time since they were previously working with other airlines before joining Uganda Airlines. Therefore, as much as it is a first for Uganda Airlines, it is not a first for the individuals. It is a huge milestone for us,” Bamuturaki said.
“Six years down the road, Uganda Airlines is opening up doors to Ugandan born, studied and bred students to do the work here at home soil. “
According to Bamuturaki, having got Approved Maintenance Organization (AMO) which is a dedicated maintenance division for Uganda Airlines, not even the sky’s the limit for the national carrier.
“The plan is to move from our own AMO to doing third party, meaning we can help do the same work for other airlines here. That is a revenue earner for the airline and it will mean different revenue streams, other than passengers and the cargo,” Bamuturaki said.
The airline is also in the process of constructing its own hangar to be able to work on the Airbus.
