Remembering the late East African Airways, evasive revival of EAC (PHOTOS)

REMEMBERING THE LATE EAST AFRIACAN AIRWAYS AND THE EVASIVE REVIVAL OF EAC

CHANGE OF GUARDS - East African Airways Corporation , more commonly known as East African Airways , was an airline jointly run by Kenya , Tanzania, and Uganda . It was set up on 1 January 1946, starting operations the same year. The airline was headquartered in the Sadler House in Nairobi , Kenya. The corporation was dissolved in 1977 amid deteriorated relations among the three countries.

The 1943 Conference of Governors of Britain's East African Territory was attended by government officials, aviation and railroad experts, businessmen, and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) officials. They formed a committee to plan for the handling of airline services for the promotion and control of civil aviation that would be run by a single enterprise, which would provide feeder flights, connect intermediate points along the trunk lines, and operate local traffic and charter services.

A draft proposal for the creation of the airline was made public in June 1945. The aims had changed a bit since 1943, but the needs for the formation of the company were almost intact. The enterprise that was to be set up would link England with South Africa via Cairo, Khartoum , and Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia. On 30 October 1945, the act that called for the creation of the East African Air Transport Authority , the organ that among other things would create East African Airways (EAA), was signed.

With an initial £50,000 capital, ownership of the company was split between the Kenya Colony (67.7 percent), Uganda (22.6 percent), the Tanganyika Territory (9 percent), and Zanzibar (0.7 percent).  BOAC provided management and technical expertise.  Following test flights in late 1945, operations started from Eastleigh Aerodrome on 1 January 1946. The regional routes linking the three East African countries was opened.

EAA had operated a service to the Congo in conjunction with Sabena, stiff competition from airlines like Central African Airways and South African Airways (SAA). On 6 February 1952, following the death of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II began her return to the United Kingdom on one of EAA's newer aircraft, a DC-3. She was carried from Nanyuki to Entebbe, where she connected with a BOAC aircraft. This event marked EAA as being the first airline not based in the United Kingdom to carry a reigning monarch. Also, during 1952, the airline commenced the flying of pilgrims to and from Mecca in conjunction with Aden Airways .

In early 1957, services to the United Kingdom were launched on a once-weekly basis, at first operated by BOAC on EAA's behalf and then in EAA's own right with ex-BOAC Argonauts . This tourist-class service had low load factors when it was started, as it competed with same-fare BOAC Britannias and Viscounts .  Also, in early 1957, the Nairobi– Aden route was started; in mid-September the same year the route was extended farther east, from Aden to Bombay via Karachi.

In 1960, two Comets ordered by the corporation in 1958 were put into service on the London –Rome –Khartoum–Entebbe

be–Nairobi, London–Rome–Khartoum–Nairobi– Dar es Salaam, and Nairobi–Aden–Karachi–Bombay routes. The same year, EAA reactivated Seychelles-Kilimanjaro Air Transport, a 1952-founded airline otherwise known as "SKAT" that had previously ceased operations, as a wholly owned subsidiary that flew some routes for EAA.

In 1967 the three countries joined forces and created a loosely binding economic union known as the East African Community (EAC). Within its mandate was the joint management of the aviation industry renamed East African Airways, now African-owned and African-operated, along with a postal service, railways and road services.  SKAT was later re-christened Simbair Ltd when it was decided that EAA would no longer operate charter services; the renaming effectively took place in May 1971 and became an EAA's wholly owned subsidiary that took over SKAT and EAA passenger and cargo charter operations.

By March 1975, employment by EAA was 4,700. At this time, the fleet consisted of sixteen aircraft (five DC-3s, three DC-9-30s , four F.27s , and four Vickers Super VC10s) that worked an extensive domestic network within the three member countries plus international services to Aden, Addis Ababa, Athens,  Blantyre , Bombay, Bujumbura, Cairo, Copenhagen , Frankfurt, Karachi, Kigali, Kinshasa , London, Lourenço Marques,

Lusaka , Mauritius , Mogadishu , Rome, Seychelles , Tananarive , and Zurich.

While the airline’s slogan promoted unity with its “Fly Amongst Friends” slogan, behind the scenes it was clear that officials in charge of airline operations were literally at each other’s throats. What began as minor squabbles over in-flight beverages ultimately led to the breakup of a once promising and international partnership. Ugandan officials balked when they discovered that EAA was serving only Kenya’s national beer, Tusker, a strong symbol of Kenyan pride. This upset Ugandans who wanted their own beers on board, in addition to their potent gin, Waragi. They filed an official complaint with the EAC’s Kenya rep, who claimed it had nothing to do with nationalism, despite the Tusker l read “My Beer, My Country.” Instead, it was purely about economics. Tuskeer lightweight disposable bottles, not heavy glass ones, which meant the airline could stock twice as many, serve more customers and make more money.

Fights over beer may sound trivial, but stakes were high. The airline’s international routes allowed it to compete with the biggest names in aviation at the time — KLM, Pan American, Air France — and literally and figuratively put East Africa on the map. In many ways the business battles were unsurprising considering the vastly different postcolonial governing styles and economic ideologies. You had capitalism in Kenya under the business minded Jomo Kenyatta, socialism in Tanzania under Nyerere and militarism in Uganda under the Milton Obote and Idi Amin regimes. Kenyatta’s forward-thinking capitalism differed vastly from Nyerere’s socialism.

In Uganda, things were OK for the first couple of years, but then Obote was kicked out in a coup in 1971, and Amin, with next to no business acumen, took power. That didn’t sit well with either Tanzania or Kenya and sparked serious regional tensions. Suspicions were so high that at one time it was even claimed in some circles that the British and Israelis were conspiring to bust up EAA to benefit Kenya, already the regional economic powerhouse. Even the location of maintenance facilities caused drama. Kenya traditionally had the best facilities and maintenance crews, and ticket sales went back to the airline’s headquarters in Kenya, but Uganda and Tanzania were understandably jealous.

Kenyan Cabinet Minister Bruce Mackenzie was an alleged “secret agent” for British and Israeli intelligence. Many suspected that the Kenyans were trying to run EAA into the ground so they could pick up the pieces and create their own national airline, which they did.

Management assistance from Aer Lingus was contracted in mid-1976 amid deteriorating relations between the three countries that ran the airline. By February 1977, EAA was saddled with $120 million in debt, and the National Bank of Kenya had underwritten four years worth of massive loans. Financial difficulties deepened when both Tanzania and Uganda struggled or failed to pay their outstanding debts for the operations of the airline. Uganda and Tanzania failed to make payments, forcing the bank to close the accounts. EAA couldn’t pay its fuel bills, which led to Shell Oil cutting off the fleet’s fuel supply.

Both Kenya and Uganda had established their own national airlines before the folding of the corporation. With Uganda Airlines forming in 1976 and Kenya Airways in 1977. Tanzania followed in April 1977 with the formation of Air Tanzania. Distrust among the members of the East African Community (EAC) surfaced again in January 1977 when Kenya insisted that the East African Airways Corporation restrict some of its long-distance flights because Tanzania and Uganda had failed to make adequate contributions to the upkeep of the airline. Tanzania retaliated by closing its border with Kenya...By the end of June the EAC had effectively ceased to exist. Kenya, which already had maintenance crews, facilities and pilots, pounced. It took what planes it could and repainted them, launching Kenya Airways two days later, which ended up being one of the most successful African airlines of all time. Over the years, Uganda Airlines and Tanzania Air collapsed owing to management issues.

Other than the anti-Amin propaganda, the fundamental reasons behind the collapse of the EAC in 1977 have repeatedly been distorted. Since the commencement of efforts to revive the EAC over a decade ago, its success is yet to be fully realised. EAC has expanded to include Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan thus a population of more than 125m, a land area of 1.83m sq. miles and a combined GDP of over US $60m. Iddi Amin is long gone but squabbles based on almost the same old fundamental issues keep arising. No member state has taken the trouble to even suggest reviving the East African Airways. Instead, some individual member states are priding themselves in reviving their respective national airlines as if to prepare for a major aviation tournament. On the other hand, a revival of the East African Airways would serve the EAC dream much better.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM